


Save the Heroes

by DickGrayson9YearOldSuperhero



Category: DCU (Animated), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, I will add characters as I go, I will add tags as I go, M/M, Metahumans, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Other, freaky death powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-05-04 18:44:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5344580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DickGrayson9YearOldSuperhero/pseuds/DickGrayson9YearOldSuperhero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when someone from our world wakes up one day in the middle of her favorite comic book universe? What happens when she befriends her favorite characters? What happens when she is the only one who can save them?</p><p>or</p><p>that one where a regular girl from a world less crazy ends up living with Bruce Wayne and the rest of the bats in order to save the heroes who save the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alrighty, so this is my first ever fic. I'm not sure whether or not it is good, i haven't had anyone even look at the file name on my computer before today. any sort of comment is appreciated. i want to know exactly what you think about it. if you think it's shit, tell me. if you think it's great, tell me. if there are mistakes, tell me. i'd really like to know. thanks.

This was never supposed to happen. Superheroes are just supposed to be in comic books and movies. Not real life. Alternate dimensions aren’t supposed to be real. I was supposed to just be a normal teenage girl. Not some freaky death magnet, superhero saving, dimension traveler who just doesn’t understand herself anymore. 

This is all just a misunderstanding. I shouldn’t have come here, but I’m here now and I know that my knowledge can be of use.

 

 

“Dude, Batman is soo much better than Superman. I mean, c’mon, He does the same amount of damage, but without any powers, and he’s also super rich without the mask. Superman is just some big blue child who thinks that just because he’s there, no one will hurt anyone around him. And then without the cape, he’s just some reporter who can’t even get the girl.” 

Eliana and I walk into our school on our first day of senior year discussing our favorite comic book superheroes. El seems to think that just because he has the word super in his name, Superman is the greatest hero in the world of super people. 

I’m still trying to decide on my answer myself. I’m caught between Batman, Nightwing, and Red Arrow. I’m leaning mostly toward Nightwing because he definitely had the balls to stand up to the Batman and tell him he was going solo. I mean, Red Arrow told Green Arrow to screw off, but it’s Batman. There is no hero that is more terrifying than him, so I respect Nightwing’s ability to stand up for himself and tell his own father that he doesn’t need to be his partner any more. It’s just inspiring, but I guess that that was the point.

“Dude, no. Just no. You’re in denial. You need an intervention. You need help. I’m sorry, I can’t let you keep throwing your life down the drain just because you have the wrong idea, please Charlie.” at this point she has stopped me and is gripping my shoulders. Pretending to beg me like one would in a real intervention, but she’s having a problem not smiling. “You need to get your shit together and see what is right in front of your face. Superman is just the greatest and as soon as you accept that, you will be fine.”

“Dude. You’re making a scene. I just want to get to homeroom without being the stared at by all the freshmen. We’re fucking seniors after all. I don’t need to deal with all of these tiny children running around in our hallways, and I especially don’t need to deal with them staring at me because my asshole friend decided that she could be in denial while accusing me of the same crime. You’re hopeless.” I say, rolling my eyes. I walk away and toward my homeroom. 

Once there, I go talk to my teacher to get my locker number and combination. I had her last year, so she already knows me and I don’t have to introduce myself. I go to my locker and try and get it open. I’m in the twelfth grade and I’m still struggling with opening my locker on the first day. I should know how to do this by now. Whatever.

I get it open and put all of my things that I won’t be needing inside. I walk back into the classroom and find the best seat that I can- the absolute farthest back, farthest from the door. The classroom is littered with posters of different motivational quotes and math puns. Math is one of my favorite subjects so, that’s perfectly fine. 

Tristan walks into the classroom and goes up to the teacher, much like I did. She is one of my best friends, along with El, and I’m happy that she’s in my homeroom. There was only one year where I had no one in my homeroom and that was freshman year. I wasn’t going to be that loser senior who didn’t have her friends in her classes. That wasn’t going to be me. 

I follow her into the hallway, knowing that she always has problems with her locker. It’s usually to the point that she doesn’t even bother with it in the first day. I figure I would go and try to help. 

“Hey,” I say as I walk up. It’s still kind of early so there aren’t many people in the hallway. She spins around when she hears my voice. 

“Charlie! Hey, how are you? I haven’t seen you since like, early July.” She quickly takes the two steps there are to be beside me and hugs me. It has been a while.

“I’ve been great. I just want to get this year over with, which is nothing unlike every other year, except that this is the last one before I get to actually have a life. Now, do you need help with your locker?”

“Probably.” Tris laughs. I wait while she tries for a while until the hallway is pretty full of people. Then I step in and open it in three attempts. She mock glares at me, puts away her stuff and we walk into the classroom. She already knows my habits on where I like to sit, and I know that she doesn’t care where we sit. 

She sits next to me and we wait for class to actually start.

“Okay, so you know that show that you recommended for me to watch, Young Justice?” Tris prompts.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“WHY! Why would you think it would be a good idea to have me watch it? I love Kid Flash. And he dies. As in he’s dead. He’s not coming back. I was so upset when I watched that scene, I almost actually cried.” I start to chuckle at her antics. “It’s not funny! My parents were looking at me weird for crying over a cartoon character. I seriously had to run to my room to hide my shame.” By this point I’m full out laughing. “You knew this would happen. You knew, and I’m blaming you now. You killed Wally. You’re a murderer!”

“Dude, of course I knew. I knew before I even told you about the show. He dies because he was trying to be heroic. That’s what heroes do. I just wanted to see this entire freak out in real life. It really was as entertaining as I thought.” 

“You ass.” She shoves me in my chair, almost making me fall out of it. I’m about to retaliate when the bell rings, and the teacher begins to speak.


	2. Chapter 2

Math, Chemistry, Lunch, French, Art. That is my schedule for this semester. Every day with the same thing. It’s not that bad. I either have El or Tris in all of my classes, except for French. I’m sitting in the most ideal place that I can, and for once, my life at school isn’t shit. 

It’s been three weeks and I haven’t had a problem yet. That’s how I know that things are about to change. 

I wake up late on Friday. I rush out the door, grabbing my toothbrush, and toothpaste, ten bucks for lunch, and my laptop. I barely make the bus, and I make sure not to talk to anyone until I can make it to a bathroom to brush my teeth. I try and look for something to do, a comic to read, anything, but I can’t find any in my bag. I was so sure I had on in there. Oh well. I didn’t eat so I take a piece of gum from my bag and try and take the edge off of my hunger. 

I get into the classroom, and I notice a new kid speaking with Mrs. Tanner. He looks kind of familiar with his dark black hair, and lithe muscles. I know that I’ve never seen him before in my life so I’m a little suspicious. 

He turns around, while still talking to my teacher, and I see the most beautiful blue eyes that I’ve ever seen. They’re bright, like they’re constantly laughing, and yet they’re hard and calculating, like he is on constant alert for threats. They are deeper than I ever thought possible. It’s like I’m staring into the infinity that is space, but with less black, more blue.

I’m staring so intently at this guy’s eyes, that I don’t even hear Tris come up to me until she’s snapping her fingers in front of my face.

“Dude. I know that he’s like, super-hot, but it’s rude to stare. Although I’m sure he’s used to it, being who he is, and who his guardian is. But still. It’s rude. Stop.” I look at her. I know that she’s right, but it’s hard to look away after seeing his face for real. What she said snapped me out of my semi-trance.

“What do you mean he’s used to it because of who his guardian is? Who’s his guardian?” I ask, giving her a wary glance. 

“Don’t act like you don’t know. His adoptive father is Bruce Wayne. You are currently looking at Richard Grayson, or well looking isn’t really what you’re doing, staring, gawking, drooling… those are closer. I’d heard that he was going to be attending our school for senior year, but I thought it was just a rumor. Huh, guess I was wrong. Oh well, it’s not like we’re ever going to get to know him I mean…”

I zoned out a while ago. Basically when she said Bruce Wayne, and then Richard Grayson. She’s shitting me, right? Those are comic book characters they aren’t real, and yet, apparently one of them is standing right in front of me. Looking at me with those beautiful eyes and walking my way and, shit. Time to start paying attention to what’s happening again.

“So what kind of sandwich do you have today, I mean if you have a sandwich that is, ‘cause like, you sometimes don’t, sometimes it’s lasagna or something-”

“Excuse me, are either of you Charlie?” What the fuck, this is just super freaky. Some supposed comic book character who apparently came to life is asking for me, I must restate my completely surprised statement-that-should-be-a-question-but-isn't-because-I’m-just-too- surprised-to-use-question-marks, what the fuck. I nod.

“Yeah. I’m Charlie, what do you need?” I’m surprised at how good I’ve gotten at controlling my emotions. Most people would have already started having a meltdown if their favorite character is suddenly standing directly in front of them and is talking to them. Speaking of, I should be listening.

“Um, I was told to find you so that you could show me around, apparently we have the same schedule.” He looks nervous. The only time that the character, Richard Grayson looks nervous is when he’s staring down an angry Batman. I need to figure out what’s happening before I drive myself insane. But for now, it’s time to observe.

“Okay, let me see your schedule so that I can make sure that you’re not wrong.” I tell him. I already have my schedule memorized so I know if he’s right or wrong without double checking. I mostly just want to see his name on an official paper. That will tell me everything that I need to know for now. At least until I can look something up on my laptop without anyone noticing. 

“Oh, uh, sure” and he grabs his from his binder that he has in his hands. I glance at the classes and he’s telling the truth, I look at his name and so is Tris. I’m officially overwhelmed. 

“Yep, uh, okay, just find a seat and find me at the end of the period and I’ll bring you to the next class.” I tell him. I really hope that he doesn’t notice the shake slight shake in my voice from seeing his name on that paper. Time for some research. Definitely.

I don’t have time right now, though because I have people around me who can see what I’m doing, and because the bell for class is about to ring. I have to wait.

The bell rings, Mrs. Tanner introduces ‘Richard’ to the class, he corrects her and says to call him ‘Dick’, and I am waiting. Constantly waiting. All I can think about is finding out the truth. This is going to be terrible.

We’re told to get into pairs so that we can do some of the word problems that are in the book. Mrs. Tanner hates word problems when she has to do them, so when we have to do them, she tries her hardest to make them more fun by doing these competitions. The first group to finish and get the answer right gets some candy the last group has to go around the class and collect all of the papers and put them in the recycling bin. 

“This time, I will be giving you your partners.” I groan. No one in this class is going to do anything if they are paired with me. They’ve all known me for at least four years and I know that they will take advantage of my knowledge. This is going to suck. “Last time, when I let you choose your partners, no one did the work, you all just messed around. Not today. If I see anyone not working on the problems, you will have your paper taken away for five minutes, and when you get it back, if anyone is done, they get to stand around you and distract you. You will not be allowed to interact with them at all. Get it? Got it? Good.”

She turns around to grab a paper. “Alright, listen up. These are your partners. Linda and Max, Tristan and Jeremy, Alissa and Jamie, Cole and Veronica, Justin and Barry, Connor and Faith, Richard and Charlie…” I’m done paying attention. Why would she put me with him? I’m so pissed. Oh well, I hope he doesn’t make me do everything. I may like math, but I hate assholes who make someone else do their work for them.

Richard goes up and grabs the paper, then he walks back toward me. I’m not sure what I should be doing, but I know that I shouldn’t just look as shocked as I probably do. 

I grab everything I will need- pencil, eraser, calculator, ruler, anything- and when I look up, he’s sitting right where Tris just was. In the desk to my immediate right. He’s also going through his things, so I take a look at the questions. They’re all fairly challenging. I don’t think I will have a problem if he does make me do everything. We just probably won’t win, that’s all.

He’s done looking through his stuff, and he immediately grabs the page and starts on question one, without even saying a word to me. I give him a look and ask, “What are you doing?” 

“Uh, the work?” he looks up. 

His eyes are still just as beautiful, but I ignore that little fact. “Okay, what questions are you going to do, which one’s am I going to do, ‘because I’m just going to sit here and stare at you until we have some sort of agreement on that.”

“Oh, you want to do some? I thought you were just going to sit there staring like every other girl I’ve been forced into a group with, or well everyone I’ve ever been put into a group with.” his face goes a little red. I feel a little bad for him. He’s just a kid like everyone else, and yet he gets treated differently because of his father. That is one of the stupidest things ever and yet I know that there will be no way to stop it. 

“Just to let you know, I actually enjoy math, so I know what it’s like to have people making you do the questions when they should be helping. So please, let me help. I’ll do all of the even numbered questions and we’ll race. Whoever finishes first wins?” I give him a small smile. I have no idea what I’m doing. Why am I offering that? It’s so stupid.

He looks surprised for a second, but then quickly gets over it. “What will I be winning then?” he gives me a cocky smirk. I officially like him. He and I will be getting along just fine.

“Oh please, like you would win, but anyway, um… let’s go with bragging rights ‘cause I don’t have any idea on what else we could win.” I look down at my page. “Three, two, one, go.” and we both begin. 

I spend about five minutes on each question, and there are twelve questions that I have to answer myself. So almost an hour later, I’m finished, and I notice that Richard has been staring at me. 

“How long have you been staring, are you done? Fuck. I lost.” I ramble. I really need to learn to stop making competitions that I don’t know if I will win. It’s getting embarrassing.

“I just finished, but you shouldn’t be too upset. My dad made me go to an advanced school before this to ‘bring me up to speed’ after nine years of living on a train. I basically went there stupid and came out a genius. Don’t feel bad.”

“You don’t have to try and make me feel better either. I’ve been the best at these kind of questions for years. Do you know how pissed I am that someone’s better than me?” I give an exasperated sigh, “Whatever, do you know if someone else is done?”

“No one. We’re the first.”

“Cool. Let’s bring up the pages then.” I may be acting a little cold toward him, but that’s mostly because I still need to know why the hell his name is Richard Grayson. I mean he was talking like he did grow up in a traveling circus, what with growing up on a train, and being sent to a catch up type school to become top of the class. I need to know.

We bring our pages up to the front and Mrs. Tanner announces that the first group is done. No one seems surprised that it’s me standing up there. Everyone’s eyes are on Richard, though. It seems that no one knows how to deal with people who are even moderately famous. God, it must be horrible to have all of their eyes on you at all times. I kind of feel bad, but then again, I’m more confused and curious.

When walking back to my seat, Richard follows me. He sits back down in Tris’s seat and looks at me.

“Yes? Can I help you with something, Richard?” I ask. He’s staring.

“Um, first of all, I’d prefer if you were to call me Dick, Richard is what people call me when they’re pissed, or if they think they have some kind of authority over me.” I know how that feels. It took me two entire years at this school to make sure that everyone knew to call me ‘Charlie’, not ‘Charlotte.’ “Second of all, you seem pissed and distant. I know what it feels like to have someone put into your care without you wanting it. So, what’s up? If it’s the fact that I asked you to show me around, you don’t have to. I can find my classes by myself if you would prefer.” shit he’s onto me. He knows that I think something’s off. I need to back away. At least until I can figure out what’s going on.

“Nothing. I’ve just got a lot on my plate, that’s all. I’m sorry if I’m being rude, I just have a lot to think about right now. I can show you to your classes, its fine.” I lie. If he is who I think he is, then he should know that I’m lying. I also know that he would know not to pry so it’s fine.

“Alright, well, I know that I don’t know you, but you seem like a nice person. If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here. You can talk to me. I mean, I’m pretty good at keeping secrets. I have to be if I don’t want the press to know anything about me.” he laughs. He seems kind of flustered, and I’m not sure why. 

“Thanks, but I probably won’t be telling you. No offense, but like you said, I don’t know you. I don’t want to drag you into my problems. Although, if I do think I need help, I will ask. Don’t doubt that.” and I pull out my laptop, officially ending the conversation.

I look around the classroom, most of the groups weren’t very far behind us, so a few had finished while we had been talking. Tris is standing in front of Mrs. Tanner’s desk and speaking with her. It looks like she’s done. I wait for ‘Dick’ to get up and leave and he does.


	3. Chapter 3

The second Tris is back in her seat, I’m bombarded with questions. “So… what was he like? Did he make you do all the work? Did he even talk to you at all? Do you like him? Do you think he likes you?” she is on a roll and I need her to stop.

 

“Dude. Dude, stop. He’s just a guy. He was like anyone else, no he didn’t make me do all the work, yes we spoke, I don’t like him but I don’t hate him, and he probably thinks that I’m just some random chick who he’s stuck talking to for a while until he gets a feel for this school.” I answer all of her questions efficiently and yet she is still looking at me like there is one question that I left unanswered. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

 

“Because, you have that look on your face that either says you’re hiding something, or you’re lying.” that’s the second person who’s asked me if I’m hiding something today, and it’s only first period. My poker face is getting worse. I need to work on that.

 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Oh look, class is almost over. I should probably pack up my things.” and I do just that, not looking at her at all.

 

Once I have everything packed, immediately the bell rings, giving me the chance to look at her for only a second to say that I would see her at lunch before I left. I made sure to wait at the door for Dick so I could show him the chemistry lab.

 

“So, chemistry, right? What have we done so far?” he asks. Again, he’s looking a little nervous, but that can easily be explained by the large groups of people standing on either side of the hallway staring at him, and obviously whispering about him.

 

“Um, well, we haven’t done much. Mr. Donnelly has mostly just given us some review papers to make sure that we remember everything from last year. We haven’t even chosen lab partners. We were supposed to do that this week.” I tell him.

 

As we walk, everyone moves out of his way. It’s like Moses parting the red sea, except he’s not Moses and it’s just a bunch of high school students. It’s pretty freaking weird. Oh well, it makes it easier for me to walk through the throngs of people.

  
We make it to the door to our classroom, and I finally turn to him and ask, “Does that always happen to you, everyone getting out of your way?” he nods. “Huh. I think I might just take advantage of that and walk with you every day. Do you know how hard it is to walk when you’re surrounded by people who are pushing you everywhere but the direction that you want to go? It’s fucking annoying.” I say as we enter the class.

We walk in and I take my seat. Mr. Donnelley is at his desk, so that is where Dick goes. El is in this class with me and she goes and sits in front of me.

“Dude. Is that Richard Grayson?” She asks while pointing. She looks completely shocked.

I nod. “Yeah, don’t call him Richard, though, he doesn’t like it. He prefers Dick. Apparently he and I have the exact same schedule. So I’m stuck showing him where everything is.” I tell her, distractedly. Mr. Donnelley is done talking with Dick and is now writing on the board a list of names. It’s the lab partner list. Oh god, who am I stuck with.

I wait for a few minutes until everyone is in their seats. I couldn’t see my name when he wrote it down, and then he covered it with a large paper. No one was allowed to know until he said so. Again, Mr. Donnelley is a teacher I’ve had before so I know how he is when he teaches. It’s very ‘I’m in charge, but I don’t care what you do as long as you pass my class and don’t interrupt me when I’m talking.’ I like him.

“Alright, class, today is the day. Today, you will find out who your soulmate is. You will learn who your lab partner is. Today is the day.” He says dramatically. “So, if you have unpacked anything, I urge you to pack it back up, because you will probably be moving. There are a few of you who I know would rather not move, and I have tried to accommodate that, but don’t be disappointed if you aren’t in the part of the classroom that you would prefer.” He said that entire last part staring directly at me. I made it very clear last year when I had him, I did not work very well anywhere but in the back corner. He knows not to move me. “So, moving on, here are your partners in crime.” And he takes away the page.

I look and immediately groan. Since when had my life become so full of clichés? I was stuck with Dick. At least I‘m in the corner.

Dick grabs his things and comes to sit next to me. I give him a small smile. He does the same. This is not going to end well. _Whatever. I’ll just get my work done and_ _not worry about him at all._ I think optimistically. I know that that won’t work, but it’s nice to dream about it.

 

“Okay, class, does everyone know who they’re partnered with? I didn’t forget anyone? Good. Now, today we are going to start on…” I am most definitely spacing out.

I took out my sketch book instead of my chemistry book and I start to draw. I make sure to stay as far away from people as I can, because my mind is so plagued with thoughts about Batman and Robin and Nightwing and Dick that if I were to draw people, I would definitely draw one of them. So instead, I let myself draw birds. I know that it’s not much better but by the end of the class, I have a sketch of a bird. Half of it is a raven and the other half is a robin.

I look up from my drawing, and notice Dick staring at it. It looks like he’s thinking. I then look at the clock and see that there are only five minutes of class left, and I close my book. That snaps him out of his thoughts. I point at the clock and he sees what I just saw, he starts to pack up as well.

Once I’m done with my things, I look on the board. Mr. Donnelley has written some questions for us to answer. I grab a permanent marker and copy them onto my arm.

The bell rings, and I look at Dick. “Meet me at the main office when the warning bell rings. Our French class isn’t too far from there. Also, bring everything you will need for art. Ms. Loera hates it when people are late to class.” I tell him. I then go up to El and we walk out of the room together. Again I’m bombarded with questions, similar to those asked by Tris. And I do the same thing. I evade any questions about my opinion on him so that it doesn’t seem like I’m lying.

We stop by her locker first, she grabs her lunch and then we head toward mine so that I can do the same. Once we both have our lunches, we head to the cafeteria to meet with Tris. When we get there, I see the worst thing possible. Dick is sitting with Tris. I’m not sure why he would be sitting there, but I don’t let it bother me.

“Hey, El, Charlie, guess who didn’t have anyone to sit with?” Tris asks enthusiastically.

“You?” I answer sarcastically. She gives me a look.

“No, you dumbass. Dick.” And she smiles at him, obviously trying to be flirtatious, but not really doing the job. I can tell exactly what she wants, and I can also tell that he does not want the same things.

El and I sit down, and Tris and El both keep a constant conversation going with Dick. I feel so bad for the guy, but I know that this is the worst thing that can happen to him with these two. They won’t do anything worse than talk to him. So, knowing that he is in good hands, probably, as soon as I finish eating, I grab my things and say, “Sorry guys, I got to go, I have to send an email to my dad and you know that I get shitty Wi-Fi in here. I’ll see you later. Dick I’ll meet you at the office. See you, guys.” And I leave.

I head toward the library, where I know that no one is going to look at my screen because I know the perfect place to go. There is a little niche in the wall on the far side of the library that no one knows about but a very select few, of which my friends and I are most of. I sit on the floor in the little niche and open my laptop. I open my web browser and go to google.

The first thing I search is DC Comics. No results, that’s weird. Next I search for Batman. I get a bunch of news reports from a neighboring city. Apparently someone is going around and pretending to be Batman. They’ve even got their own Robin. I’m officially confused. I then search for Bruce Wayne. This brings up everything from the Wayne Tech official website, to a news article that details the murder of his parents. What the hell. Bruce Wayne is a real person? If Bruce is real, then Dick is definitely _the_ Dick Grayson _._ Shit.

 _If they’re real, then why do I remember them being comic book characters._ I think, _something odd is happening, and I need to figure out what it is._

I spend the rest of my lunch, researching what scenarios from the comics are true and what aren’t. I also look for all of the other heroes depicted by DC Comics and find out that they are all real. Every single one. I’m so overwhelmed.

When the warning bell rings, I quickly realize that I have classes to go to and that I have to meet Dick. I pack up everything that I was using, and I run. I run as fast as I can toward the main office.

When I get there, I look around and see Dick sitting on one of the benches in the main foyer. Good. I walk up to him and apologize for being late.

“Its fine, I wasn’t waiting long, your friends like to talk.” He smiles.

“Oh, god, don’t I know it. For the last three years, I have been late to my classes after lunch so many times, it’s not even funny.” I tell him. I need to find a time to bring this up, because I know that I can’t let anyone else know about what I know. I just have to be cautious.

We get to French class on time, and head to the back of the class. The same corner that I always sit in. he had mentioned already having met Mme. Bernard when in the office that morning after the secretary had introduced them, so he didn’t bother going up and introducing himself a second time, only waving to he as we walked by her desk.

The final bell rings, and class begins. “Bonjour, mes amis. Au jour’dui, nous avons un nouveau étudiant. Dire bonjour à Richard Grayson.” She says, which basically means ‘hello class, today we have a new student. Everyone, say hello to Richard Grayson.’

Everyone turns around to look at us. During lunch, everyone had heard that he was going to school here, so when people walked into the classroom, they scanned looking to see if he was in here. They all mumble a quick “Bonjour, Richard.” And we keep going with our review.

Today we are talking about ER and IR verbs. She gives us a worksheet and tells us to work in pairs. Everyone’s head turns to Dick, but he just turns to me. Before he even gets the chance to ask, I answer his question with a quick, “Sure.”

And we get to work, while everyone around us finds their partners and does the same. Not without talking about him first. They’re all wondering why he chose me, instead of anyone else. Some of their guesses are super farfetched, like, I drugged him, and a few others. It’s hilarious really.

We finish quickly. With his prior knowledge from the circus going to France so many times while he was with them, and my French background. It’s really not that hard, but it’s not meant to be. It’s just review.

We go to tell Mme. Bernard that we’re done and she collects our pages. She tells us just to occupy ourselves. She expects everyone else to take the rest of the period.

We head back to our seats and I pull out my laptop. Now is the time to tell him, but I don’t want him to say it out loud, so I type it out in my word processor.

**I know that you are Nightwing. I know that Bruce Wayne is Batman. I know a lot and I don’t know how to explain why or how but I can try.**

I turn the screen towards him and he reads it. His eyes go wide. He says something out loud, but then thinks better of it. He grabs my laptop and types out and answer.

**Explain. Now.**

And I try. I really do. I try my hardest to think of a way to explain it, and I finally show him this:

**I went to bed last night after reading a Batman and Robin comic book. You and Bruce Wayne were fictional characters to me. I woke up this morning and tried to find that comic book and couldn’t. I didn’t think much of it. It’s not hard to lose something, but then I got to school and standing in front of my teacher’s desk is one of the characters that I had been reading about. I went to go look up the company that had manufactured the comics at lunch, and I didn’t find anything. I then looked up as many of the characters from said comics and found out that all of the superheroes and super villains were real. I have no idea how this happened or what even happened but I need help trying to figure it out.**

He reads it over. And then again. And then he just stares at it. I can tell he’s trying to think of what might have happened.

He starts to type again. When he shows me what he wrote, it says;

**What are you thinking? I mean, if you have such extensive knowledge, then you should be able to explain this.**

I don’t know what to think. And I tell him that. I tell him that I have been freaking out this entire day, from the moment Tris said his name. I tell him that when he offered to listen to me talk about my problems, that this was the only thing I was worrying about. I tell him that I never went to go and email my dad and that I had gone to do some research on this. I tell him everything.

He sits there, reading what I’m telling him, and thinking it over. I pull the laptop away again, and write:

**I know that this is a lot to take in right now, but I can’t help it. I need help to figure this out and you are the only one I know who can help me. Please.**

He nods and writes:

**I can’t promise anything, but I will try. That is the best that I can do.**

“Thank you.” I whisper. I really hope that we can figure this out.


	4. Chapter 4

French class is over, and we’re heading to Art. The art room is on the complete opposite side of the school, and up two floors. We have three minutes to get there. We run. When we get in there, its seconds before the bell rings. I rush to my seat, and Dick goes to Ms. Loera’s desk. He stays up there and I know what’s about to happen. Everyone who is new to the class gets to stand at the front, to model everyone else’s drawings. At the beginning of the semester, for the first week, if you’re unlucky, you get chosen to do the very same thing. It’s horrifying to be the one up there. I feel bad for Dick

Ms. Loera walks to the front, and immediately, everyone quiets down. “Good afternoon, class. Today, we have a new student, and you all know what that means. So, everyone get your pencils out, Dick, get into a position that you are comfortable standing in for the rest of the period, and… begin!” and we do.

Dick is standing in a way that allows he looks impressive, without looking like he is acting. From my angle, I can see his lithe, strong muscles that he uses when flying through the air on a trapeze. I can see how strong his face looks, and how his eyes glean with many untold jokes. He really is handsome.

I try my hardest to draw him as I see him, but I can’t get his eyes right. We’re allow a little bit of artistic freedom, so if we can’t get something how we wanted it, we can change something. I’m tempted to give him a blindfold, but I won’t. I will find a way to draw his eyes if it’s the last thing I do. I know I can do it, so I will.

When there is fifteen minutes of class left, Dick is told that he can go sit down. If we don’t have at least a rough sketch of him by now, then we never will.

He sits down next to me. “Come to my house tonight.” He says. I’m surprised.

“What?”

“Come to my house tonight. We need to figure this out and I’d rather not try somewhere public because of how many secrets that you know. Bruce is going to kill me, but whatever.” He’s smiling, “Come to my house tonight. Like right now. Don’t even bother getting on your bus. It will just take too long. I drove anyway.”

“Um… okay, I just have to go send a message to my dad.” I say. “I’ll meet you by the main doors.”

“Okay.” And I turn away. I walk toward my locker, and text my dad as I go, telling him that I will not be home right away tonight, that I have a group project that I will be working on at a friend’s house.

When I get to my locker, I grab everything, and close my locker. I check my phone, and my dad has answered with a quick **“okay.”**

I try and walk to the doors, but it’s still hard to walk without being push away from your goal. I finally make my way to the doors, and see a huge group of people swarming right next to them. Sorry, not people. Girls. I know exactly who is in the middle of it. I push through, and it takes me a while, but I do make it into the middle.

“Hey, Dick. What going on?” I ask, casually.

“Oh nothing, just fighting off packs of females. Nothing but the norm.” he says, just as nonchalant.

“Oh, I bet. Want some help?”

“If you think that you can help, sure.” He says. I flash him a devilish smile and turn away. I glare at all of the girls who are closest and they back away. I’ve perfected a glare that can make them do what I ask, just because they don’t want to know what I can do to them. Most of my friends are super jealous, but that’s fine. They sometimes benefit from it too.

Once everyone has backed away at least six feet, I keep glaring, while grabbing Dick’s arm, and I push through, with very little resistance.

As soon as we’re free of the people who had crowded around Dick, I look at him. He looks kind of surprised. I guess he didn’t expect them to back away so easily.

“How did you- you know what, you probably won’t tell me so nevermind.”

“You ready to go, or do you need to grab something?” I ask.

“I’m ready, let’s go.” And we walk out of the school and into the parking lot. Then we walk out of the parking lot. We go to mall nearby, and we head to the back lot. There is no one in there.

“Where are we going?” I ask. I’m confused as to why he brought me to an abandoned parking lot, but then he pulls us around another corner, and I see a motorbike. Now, I don’t pretend to know much about motorbikes, but this one looked both expensive and fast. It was entirely black, with little chrome accents. I wasn’t sure whether to be afraid or excited.

“Why park all the way over here?” I ask him, trying not to show my hand in how overwhelmed I am. I’ve never been on a motorcycle. I’m not sure what to think.

“So that is doesn’t get stolen, or tagged by high school students. Do you know how expensive this thing is? Do you know how much begging and promising I had to do to get Bruce to let me ride this to school instead of having our butler drive me? I’m not allowed to let anyone near it. He even bought this parking lot so that I could park it somewhere safe.” He laughs at the crazy antics of his adoptive father, while I’m still freaking out about getting a ride on a motorbike. I know that I won’t freak out until I’m alone, but still. I’m kind of freaking out now.

“Here.” He passes me a helmet and I notice that it’s the only one.

“What about you?” I ask.

“You know my secret, so I can say that I really don’t think that the most dangerous thing that I’ve done is driving a motorcycle- that I have never crashed- without a helmet. I trust myself not to crash. It’s fine.” He waves away my concern.

“Yeah, but it’s illegal.” I say.

“Do you want me to wear the helmet, or do you want to wear the helmet?” he asks, done with my shit.

“I’m wearing the helmet.” I say with all the confidence that I can muster. He then gets onto the bike, and I do the same.

As soon as I’m sitting, he turns his head and says, “Hold on tight.” And I wrap my arms around hiss middle.

“You know,” I drawl nervously, “I’ve never ridden on a motorcycle.” Dick laughs.

“I kind of figured with the way you were looking at it before you got on. You looked nervous.” He’s still laughing. He turns his head back to the front.

When he starts the bike, I hold onto him tighter. I might be slightly, maybe, more than a little bit regretting the decision to get onto the bike. He turns to face me again and he says, “Don’t worry, I’ve never crashed a bike.”

“Like that makes me feel any better.” I mumble. He laughs, turns to the front, and accelerates.

It’s exhilarating. The feeling of the wind against my face and the bike engine rumbling beneath me. I feel… I don’t know what I feel. But I know that it’s amazing.

We twist and turn through all of the bigger streets of the city, until we are nearing a quieter neighborhood. We keep going all the way down the road until the very end. At the end of the street, there is a huge house-mansion I guess would be the better term.

There is a large round about in the centre of the driveway, and a garage door that is opening for us. Dick has slowed down enough that he can safely drive the bike into their basement garage, where I see rows on rows of expensive cars and old classics.

Dick brings the bike around to the very back of the garage, where I see an entire row of just bikes. All of them are either black, or red. I’m impressed.

When Dick cut’s the engine. I slide off easily. I’m surprised that my knees aren’t jelly. I’m actually really proud of myself.

He guides the bike back through the line, and puts it in the only empty spot. He walks back over to me and asks, “You okay, you’re looking a little green.”

“I’m fine.” I say. “That was great.”

He smiles at me and says, “Good. Now, c’mon. I have to introduce you to Alfred, or else Bruce will be suspicious and send Tim in to spy.” He is leading me to a door that is nearby. It leads to a staircase that we begin to climb. “I don’t think I want them to know that you know who we are just yet. I still want to figure it out as best as we can before bringing it up with Bruce.”

I nod. “I agree. Find out what we can, and then when there is nothing else that we can find, we bring everything we have to him and hope for the best.”

We have reached the top of the stairs and there are two hallways. Dick chooses the one on the right and we walk for a while before he opens a door that leads into what looks like the kitchen.

Standing in the kitchen, stirring something on the stove, is an old man in a suit. Without even turning to look at either of us, he says, “Good afternoon, Master Richard. Who is this?”

“Alfred, this is Charlie. She and I are lab partners in Chemistry and we have some homework to do. Charlie, this is Alfred, our butler.” Dick gives me a look that tells me to greet him. From what I remember, Alfred is all about manners, so I do my best.

“Hello, Alfred, how are you today?” he looks up at me. A little taken aback, but very good at hiding it.

“I am well. And you, Madam Charlotte?”

“Just fine, thank you. And please, call me Charlie.”

“Very well, Madam Charlie. Master Richard, will you be needing snacks brought to your room?”

“No, thank you, Alfred. We’ll be fine.” He says.

“And will Madam Charlie be staying for dinner?”

“Um, yes I think so. It is a big assignment, we will need a lot of time on it. We will see you later.” And Dick grabs my arm and pulls me away from the room. We head up to the top floor of the building, and down another hallway. We stop in front of a door, and I assume that it is Dick’s room. He opens the door, and gestures for me to enter.

I look around and see a room with dark brown walls, a huge wooden wardrobe, and a dresser and desk to match. On the desk is a huge, expensive looking, computer, that looks as if it could easily be used to hack into any firewall in the universe. The bed is a queen size, with heavy looking blankets on top. Dick steps around me, and sits on the desk chair, leaving the only places left to sit either on the floor or on the bed. I choose the latter, not wanting to be that weird person who sits on the floor.

“Alright, so, tell me everything. Start to finish. What happened?”

“Um, well. I was always a huge fan of DC Comics.” I look him in the eyes as I speak. “Something that my dad got me into when I was young. Some of my favourite comics were the Batman and Robin comics because if a young kid could become a superhero and save lives every night, why couldn’t I? That was the whole reason that the Robin character was introduced, according to the writers of said comics.

“I ended up reading more than just Batman and Robin, though, I read about the Flash and Aquaman, Superman and Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow, Captain Marvel, the Hawks, the A.T.O.M, Black Canary, all of the Green Lanterns, Captain Atom, Icon, and everyone else. I know a lot more about them than they would probably like me to. I know all of their secret identities- Barry Allen, King Orin, Clark Kent, Diana Troy, J’onn J’onzz, Oliver Queen, Billy Batson, Shayera and Khufu, Ray Palmer, Dinah Lance, Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, John Smith, Nathaniel Adam, Arnus. I also know about their younger counterparts, like you, Tim Drake, Wally West, M’gann, Kaldur’ahm, Connor Kent, Cassie, Roy Harper, Artemis Crock, Jaime Reyes, Garfield Logan, and La’gaan. I know who everyone is. I lived in a place where there were no such thing as aliens, or metahumans, or grown men dressed as bats jumping from rooftop to rooftop. It was all just things that children read about.” Dick was just sitting there, not moving, but hopefully listening. I know that he has entered detective mode. He wants to know what’s up.

“I then wake up, a week into my senior year, and find a guy, who looks like he could be one of the characters that I’ve been reading about my whole life, and I think to myself that I’ve been reading too much lately. Then the same guy walks up to me and introduces himself as Dick Grayson, the guy I know for a fact was the Boy Wonder, the original Robin, Batman’s First Protégé, and is Nightwing. I get confused and curious. I try not to show my confusion- or my major geek-ness for having almost everything about the DC Comics universe memorized, so I don’t ask anything. I don’t say anything. I bide my time, and wait.

“At lunch I’m able to do some research and I find out that, for some reason, everything I remember reading about as a child was never written. No comic strips were illustrated. There wasn’t even a mention of DC Comics online whatsoever. It’s like I was dropped into an alternate dimension where everything about my life is the same, except for the fact that I live in the city that one of my all-time favourite superheroes protects, and I’m going to school with him. It’s unreal.

“I try to find a time to tell him everything that I know, but I don’t find any better way to approach the subject other than just out right saying what I have to. So I do, and he believes me.

“I know that he probably doesn’t and has probably sent a message to Bruce or Tim or someone and has the room bugged so that someone else can listen in,” when I admit this, Dick’s eyes widen. I knew he had the place bugged. “because that would be what would happen if the Dick Grayson from the comics found out that someone knew his biggest secret. I am entirely willing to tell to anyone who I know can be trusted with this information whatever they want to know, so I don’t understand the need for all the secrecy, but I do understand that you need someone to know if I’m lying. So no. I’m not lying. I am telling the truth. I am not from around here, and I know too much about all of you.” I declare. “I’ll even have one of your telepaths search my mind. I come from a place where you don’t exist off of pages and movie screens.”

Silence. That is all that I am met with. The silence of consideration. Dick is sitting there, with a crease between his brows, staring past the corner. I can tell that he’s thinking. I know the look on his face, it’s the one that is wondering what he should do next. I allow the silence, knowing that if I seem nervous it will look like I’m lying. I sit there. He sits there. He thinks, I wait. It’s pretty simple.

Finally, he looks up. “I believe you.” Is all he says before he gets up and walks to the wardrobe. He puts his hand on top and reaches around for something. When he finds, whatever he is looking for, he brings it down. It is a small recording device. I was right. He presses a button, and looks at me. “I did have the conversation bugged, how did you know I would?”

“Because, the Dick Grayson in the comics was always very cautious, he learned that from Batman.” I say with a smirk. “Can I ask you some questions, now? I kind of want to know what part of the story line you are following, and what it is that I should be expecting.” He nods. “Okay, so, Jason Todd? Does that name ring any bells?”

Dick tenses. “Okay, I’ll take that as a yes… um, what about… Happy Harbour? Is that where you are working out of?” he nods. “Um, well then, you are Nightwing by now, correct?” another nod. “So, Kroloteans? They a thing?”

“How do you know about that? That is a recent development that we are working on. We didn’t even know what they were called until recently.” He looks taken aback.

“Okay, what do you know about them?”

“They are an alien race who have been abducting humans and taking their places. We don’t have much information about them, but, hopefully, our away team is going to bring back some new information.” He’s gone full business mode now.

“Away team? The team on Raan?”

“Yes. Again, how do you know?”

“One of the cartoon television shows that featured you guys told the story of your interactions with the Kroloteans and what brought them to earth and then what happened after. I won’t tell you what happens, though, I can’t. That would mess with everything.”

He nodded. “I know. I wish you could, but you can’t. I wouldn’t let you anyway. I don’t want to mess with anything.”

“Okay, what about Aqualad? Is he- I don’t want to say it, just in case, but, umm…”

“He is no longer a friend.” He says.

“Sure, okay.” I give him a knowing look. He looks shocked. He knows that I know. Good.

“Um, okay… I’m guessing that the sixteen hours was a thing. And because the team from Raan isn’t back yet, you don’t know why it was necessary for your enemies.” Again, shock makes his eyes widen. I’m just sitting here, asking about the things that I already know are happening.

It seems like this is following the story of one of the shows that I used to watch very closely. If that is true, I will be infuriated if I have to go through what they went through on the show. I’m feeling the beginnings of an anxiety attack. Too much was going to happen, and all very soon. I’m terrified.

“Um… what about the failsafe training? Did you guys really do that?”

“Let’s not talk about that.”

“Alright, uh… was Roy the mole?”

“Yes. He was the mole and he is a clone.”

“Okay. I have a good idea of what is going to happen. I don’t like it, but I know what it will be.”

“What do you mean, you don’t like it?” he jumped up from his seat. “Why don’t you like it? Can you explain without telling me really anything?”

“I mean that I don’t like the outcome, I don’t like it because something bad happens that bothers everyone involved, and I just did.” I answer. I really shouldn’t have said anything, but I don’t know if I will be able to keep this a secret.

“That’s all I know and all I’m going to ask. Sorry, no. I have one more question. Where’s your bathroom?”

He laughs and points me to a room down the hall. I enter, and close the door. I then stop and freak out. It’s been building for a while. I know that everything happens for a reason, but when you are forced into an alternate dimension where your favourite comic book characters are all real, and all of their villains and problems are as well, it feels really unfair. I don’t know how to deal with knowing all of the hardships that are to come, but I do know one thing. I am going to help them. I will get them through this unscathed. Even Kid Flash. I have to save him. If not for him, then for Tris.

Although my resolve is strong, I’m still freaking out. I’m nearly hyperventilating. I slide down the wall that is next to the door, and try and get my breathing under control.

In through the nose, out through the mouth. Again. Again. Again. In through the nose. Hold for five seconds. Out through the mouth. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

I do this until I feel like I’m back in control. I know how to deal with this kind of thing. I hate to say it, but it happens frequently.

I stand up slowly, making my way to the sink. I look in the mirror and see that I had been crying. There are tear streaks down my cheeks, and my face is red. I’m lucky that my eyes aren’t very puffy. I turn the faucet on cold, and run my hands under it. Then I cup some water in my hands, and try and cool down my face with it, hoping to make it less red. Once I’m sure that there is no residual evidence of my little breakdown, I go to the door, and open it, only to see Dick sitting in the hallway, next to the door.

“What, can’t I have a little privacy?” I ask annoyed. I really hope he wasn’t there long enough to hear me freaking out right next to the door, just through the wall.

“You can, but then you were gone for ten minutes, and when I went to check on you, I heard someone struggling to breathe. So I waited.” He said, in lieu of an apology.

“Thanks for caring, but next time, if I’m freaking out in the bathroom, go back to wherever it was that you were and pretend like you don’t know anything about it. It’s easier on me that way.” I say. I don’t need him getting into my personal feelings. He should know better that to intrude.

“I can’t promise that. What was that about?” he asks, genuinely.

“If you must know, it’s not every day that you find out that you’ve somehow gone to an alternate dimension, or something, and in that alternate dimension, you find all of your childhood heroes are real and that all of their problems and villains are real too. And the fact that this seems to follow so closely with a certain show that leads nowhere good bothers me. I mean, its one thing to know everything that is going to happen, it’s another to not be able to do anything about it, and it’s another to know how to change everything that goes bad and how to fix it, but not be allowed to. I’m terrified that I won’t be able to stop myself from doing something to change everything.” I admit. I’m going to work myself up again very soon if we don’t drop the subject. “Let’s talk about something else. Anything else. How are you liking Garrison High?” I ask.

“It’s great. I mean, I’ve only gone there for one day, but it’s a great school.” He admits.

“Why did you switch schools so early on in the school year?”

“I couldn’t get the program that I wanted, so I waited until the final date that you could drop the class, and no one did. So I left.”

“I know how that feels, in the eighth grade, I couldn’t get the teacher that I wanted, and the other grade eight teacher was not a teacher that I would have been able to excel under, so my parents and I decided that switching schools would be for the best. So I did.”

“Was the teacher too strict?” he wonders.

“No. Too nice. She was more concerned about how well the students were getting along than whether or not we got the right answer. I couldn’t give two shits about the people around me. When I’m trying to learn, I could be surrounded by murderers who are murdering each other. As long as they don’t bother me, I’ll be fine.” I proclaim.

“I don’t doubt it. You seem pretty damn strong in that sense.” He’s smiling. I feel my face getting warm and I hope I’m not blushing too badly.

We walk back to Dick’s room. “So, now that we’ve got that out of the way, what do you want to do?” he asks.

“I don’t know. What is there to do?” I smirk.

“We could watch a movie.” He suggests.

We end up lying side by side, on his bed, with his laptop in front of us, watching some b-rated action movie. I’m not really paying attention to it. I’m still thinking about how I might be able to help keep everyone alive, while stopping the alien invasion from getting too far out of hand.

The movie ends and I don’t even realize it. I’m so focused on what I’m thinking about that Dick has to snap his fingers in front of my face to get my attention.

“You with me?” he teased.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just thinking… what time is it?” I ask.

“Um, about quarter to five. We should be getting called down to dinner any minute now. You ready to meet the Bruce Wayne?”

“Depends. Who was on the other side of your bug from our earlier conversation?” I question.

“Tim. I asked him for full secrecy on the subject, though. No one will know about it, except the three of us.” He replies.

“When are you planning on telling Bruce?”

“That depends on you. I’ll tell him when you are comfortable with him knowing.” He reassured.

“I don’t care when you tell him. I don’t even care if you tell him at all. Really, I couldn’t care less about what you do with this information. I have a feeling that we won’t be able to get me back to where I’m from, so I will try and help in any way that I can.”

“Alright, well, I can tell him tonight, if you don’t mind. It gets hard keeping secrets from the Batman.” He chuckles.

“One would guess.” I smirk.

In the next moment, someone knocks on the door. Dick tells them that they can come in, and Alfred opens the door.

“Master Richard, Mistress Charlie? Dinner is ready. Please wash up and join masters Bruce and Timothy in the dining room.” Alfred requests.

“Thank you, Alfred. We’ll be right there.” And with that, Alfred leaves the room.

Dick gets up and grabs his laptop off the bed. Putting it down on his desk, he turns to me and says, “Well, time to go. We have to wash our hands or we’ll be sent back up to do so. And Alfred will know. He knows everything.”

So we walk back to the bathroom, and take turns washing our hands in the sink. Once we’re done, Dick leads me back down the stairs. We walk towards the kitchen, but before we could reach it, Dick stops in the hallway and opens a door for me to enter, which I do.

I’m now standing in a room that could only ever be described as a dining room. It’s got cabinets scattered on the edge of the room, holding everything from alcohol, to expensive looking china.

In the middle of the room, is a table. Not just a table. A huge, rectangular, wooden table. It has a long stretch of fabric covering the center of it in a line. At one end of the table, there is nothing. But, the other end is laden with food, and dishes. At this end of the table, there are two people sitting in the chairs. One on the end of the table, and one to his left.

On the end, is a man whom I can only assume to be Bruce Wayne. He is handsome and confident. He is wearing a suit, which makes him look like he just came back from meeting of some sort. He looks immaculate.

The boy to his right must be Tim Drake. He is just as confident, but he is also very relaxed, where Bruce is calculating, Tim is comfortable. He is evaluating everything, but with no real need for tension. He seems like he’s just there. Existing. Not really doing anything, yet, from what I know, that is the complete opposite. He is always doing something. Always running the possibilities of everything. He’s just better at hiding it than Bruce.

Dick leads me along until he is standing near Bruce, across from Tim. Bruce is looking at me. No staring would be more accurate. Like he’s sizing me up.

“Dick, who is this?” Bruce asks. Tim looks at me and smiles. He knows everything. I know he’s not going to say anything. I feel comfortable near him and I don’t even know him.

“This is my friend, Charlie. Charlie, this is Bruce, my dad, and this is my brother, Tim.” He pulls out a chair for me and I sit down in it. He pulls out the other chair, in between Bruce and me, and sits in it himself. “We were working on a chemistry assignment.” He lies.

I give him a look that asks ‘are you going to tell him?’ and he gives a brief nod, but waves his hand, signifying that he will, but later.

“Well, what part of Chemistry?” he seems reluctant to believe us, which is a good idea. We are lying after all, and if Batman weren’t suspicious when someone is lying to his face, I was going to be disappointed.

“Uh, just basic chemical formulas. We have to do ‘something artistic’ with them. We could make a song- which would take forever-, draw a picture, write a poem, anything we wanted, as long as it’s got at least twenty different formulas.” He explains. It is true, we do have a chemistry assignment that is similar to what he is describing, but we have an entire week of class to work on it.

“Interesting, what have you chosen?” Bruce leans over the table, looking directly at me, so I know I have to be the one to answer this.

“Dick is going to draw something, and then I’m going to paint it.” I say. This is true. We are going to do just that.

“Good choice. Dick is an amazing artist.” Tim grins, watching Dick’s face flush. I chuckle a little bit. That is definitely how a younger sibling acts. Constantly embarrassing the older. He’s doing his job right.

Right then, Alfred walks into the room, pushing a cart laden with food. He takes everything off of the cart and lays it out on the table. Bruce thanks Alfred, and looks everyone in the eye, before saying “Dig in.”


	5. Chapter 5

I survive the dinner, and Dick and I go back to his room after.

“You never told him.” I say. I walk over to his bed and sit on it. I’m not upset about it, but I’m confused.

“I figured it would be better for you if I didn’t tell him while you were there. He’s going to be upset when I do tell him, and I don’t want him to take it out on you. It’ll give him some time to think about it, cool down afterwards.” He sits next to me, and then flops back down on his bed. “Do you know how hard it is to lie to that man? It’s fucking stressful as shit.”

“Dude. Deal with it. I probably could have taken anything that he had thrown at me. You could have told him. You just made your own job harder.” I snark.

“Yeah, well, I’m not sure what he’s going to do once he knows that you know. I couldn’t just tell him, and then watch him kill you. I figured it was better to just wait.” He says, rolling over.

“Your phone is buzzing.” He announces, after a beat of silence. I stare at him, confused. I didn’t hear anything. But I reach into my bag anyway and realize that my phone was vibrating. I pull it out and the caller ID says it’s my dad.

“I’ve got to take this, I’ll be right back.” I say, while getting up and heading towards the door. I step out of the room and answer the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, when are you going to be back?” my dad’s deep voice asks through the phone. He seems a little off, but I don’t know why.

“Uh, I don’t know, why? What’s going on?”

“Nothing, just hurry back. It’s getting kind of late. What kind of homework is it?” he’s hiding something.

“Chem. We’ve got this project thing. We’re almost done. I can be home soon and we can finish tomorrow.” I explained.

“No, no. don’t bother, take your time. Just, be back sometime before school tomorrow, and try and actually sleep tonight.” He tries.

“It’s no problem.” I assure. “We do have a little bit of class time tomorrow to work on it, and we are almost done. We can put the final touches on tomorrow. I’ll see you soon. Bye.” And I hang up.

I walk back into the room, and tell Dick that I have to head home. “Something seemed off about my dad, I want to know what’s going on.”

“Well, why don’t we go then? I’ll drive you back.” And he gets up off of his bed, and grabs a jacket.

We walk back down through the manor, and pass Alfred when we reach the kitchen. I thank him for the wonderful meal, and he bids me goodnight. We walk back through the same door that we first entered and back to the garage.

“Car, or bike?” Dick asks.

“Doesn’t matter, I don’t care, just pick something and drive it.” the fact that my dad seemed off over the phone was worrying me. He’s never like that.

“Okay,” and he walks back to the bike he took to school. He pulls it out of the line, and grabs a helmet from one of the other bikes. There are now two. I smile at him as he passes one to me, and put it on. He does the same, and we both get onto the bike.

Dick drives slowly while still on the property, but once he’s on the street, he picks up the speed.

I direct him to my house, and he stops in the driveway. I get off the bike, and pass him the helmet. He straps in it onto the side of the bike. “Thanks for listening. I just, I needed to tell someone, and I know that you wouldn’t be comfortable with me talking to anyone else about it.”

“Thank you for telling me. This is going to make things interesting.” He smiles.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I affirm.

Turning away, I walk up to my house and unlock the door. I turn around and wave at Dick, then turn back to the door.

When I open it, I don’t hear anything. This is unusual. I can usually hear my brother and sister arguing or music coming from one or both of their rooms. Today, I hear nothing.

I walk further into the house, dropping my bag near the door. “Hello?” I call. Still nothing. “Anybody home?” I’m walking through the main floor of my house and I stop at my sister’s room. There’s something dark pooling on the floor. I can’t make out what it is because of the low light in the hallway, but I’m immediately terrified.

Slowly, I open the door. As soon as I see what’s inside, I want to puke. Both my brother and sister are lying on the floor, with blood staining their clothes, and multiple stab wounds.

Sitting on my sister’s bed is my dad, with a blank look on his face, staring at the floor. One of the knives from the kitchen is lying next to his foot. He’s covered in blood, but looks otherwise fine.

“Dad? What happened? Why are you just sitting there? Did you call nine-one-one?” he looks up at me, and his face immediately changes.

“ _You!_ It’s _your fault!”_ and he jumps up from where he’s sitting, grabs the knife from the floor, and lunges at me. I scream and just barely get out of the way before he hits me.

“What are you doing?!? What do you mean ‘it’s my fault?!’” I’m panicking. I have no idea why, but my dad has killed both of my siblings, and is trying to kill me. I don’t know what to do, but I do know that I don’t want to die.

“She died _because of you!_ She left _because of you!_ We would have been fine without _any of you!!_ ” he yells. “She wouldn’t have been there if you weren’t here to be fed and clothed and to go on all of your expensive trips! I _blame YOU!!”_ and he comes at me again, this time, I’m not fast enough. He stabs through my stomach.

I scream in pain. My vision goes red. I fall to the ground and grab the knife where it meets my skin.

I think I black out, because the next thing I know, Dick is kneeling above me, trying to get me to respond. “Charlie? Charlie, c’mon. Please, Charlie.” He pleads. I groan in pain. I’m lying on the floor of the hallway, covered in my own blood, and curled in on myself. I have no idea where my dad is, but right now, I don’t care. It hurts too much.

“Charlie! Oh, thank fuck. Okay, I’m going to pick you up. I’ve called Bruce and told him everything. He’s almost here and then we’re going to get you fixed up, alright?” My vision is swimming, but I try and nod. It take so much effort, it’s not even funny.

“Dick! Where are…” I look over Dick’s shoulder and see Batman standing at the entrance to the hallway. “Get her to the Batmobile, now.” He demands.

Dick tries to pick me up, and I yell in pain. “Shh, shh. It’s okay Charlie, its okay. I’m going to try and pick you up again, and it’s probably going to hurt but it’s going to be okay.” Dick coos. He’s trying to make me feel better, but it’s not working.

“Make up… your… mind… either it is… okay… or it… will be.” I gasp. He chuckles, while picking me up again. I groan and squeeze my eyes shut.

“Fine. It will be.” He whispers.


	6. Chapter 6

I think I blacked out again, because the next thing I remember is waking up in a strange room, on a bed that isn’t very comfortable, with Dick sitting on a chair next to me. His head is resting on the bed and he’s asleep. It can’t be a very comfortable position.

I’m about to wake him up, when Alfred walks into the room. He has a tray with some bandages and wipes and other things that I don’t recognize. All of them medical.

“Ah, Madam Charlie. Glad to see you awake.” The old Brit muses. “How are you feeling?”

“I can’t feel anything.” I tell him. He looks confused, but nods. I must be on some serious drugs if I can’t even feel the slightest twinge of pain when he goes to change the bandages.

I take a quick peek at the wound and see a four inch long gash that looks pretty deep. To think that my dad did that to me. I can’t. He’s not that type of person. At least, I didn’t think he was.

Once Alfred is done, he tells me that I should keep resting. I know that I won’t be able to. I have too much on my mind. Like why my dad did what he did?

He was talking about it being my fault that someone was somewhere and they died because they were there. I know who he was talking about. My mom.

My dad’s pay cheque didn’t support a family of five, with three growing teenagers, so my mom went and took a job on a mine site. This helped pay for all of our extracurriculars and the extra little things that we didn’t necessarily need. It was on this job that my mom died.

It was only a few months ago, such a short time that people have only just stopped asking me if I’m okay every second, and she was taking a message to another part of the mine. This was something that she had to do often, but this time, they were blasting some of the rock. She wasn’t where she was supposed to be, and she wasn’t sure on where exactly the blast was going to occur. So, when she was walking along one of the catwalks, the blast went, and it accidentally destabilized the platform that she was on. They told us that she died quickly, as if that were any consolation.

My dad hasn’t been the same since. He’s been distant, at best. So when he called and asked when I would be home, I figured that it was him trying to be done with that. Apparently I was wrong.

“Charlie? Charlie, what’s up?” Dick is awake, and he’s worrying again. I didn’t even see him wake up. I was too lost in thought.

“Nothing. Just thinking about my dad.” I tell him. He gives me a sad look.

“Hey, it’ll all be okay. We’ll figure something out.” He says. He’s probably thinking that I’m worried about where I’m going to live. He’s definitely wrong.

“You know, that’s what they told me when my mom died.” Dick looks surprised. “Everyone told me that, even my dad. And then he got distant. So distant that seeing him more than once a week was a surprise. And then school starts. I meet one of my favourite comic book characters in class, and then he goes and kills my brother and sister. He tries to kill me too, and all he was talking about was how it was our fault that my mom died. If _we_ weren’t there, then she wouldn’t have had to get a job to help pay for all the things that _we_ wanted, and she would still be alive. Which is true. If we didn’t want to be regular people and have things that regular people had, then she wouldn’t have gone and gotten a job where they used dynamite, but it was an accident. It’s not anyone’s fault. So I’m more than a little pissed that he would blame us, but I can’t do anything about it now, so. What’s the point?” throughout my whole rant, Dick just sat there, staring at me with wide eyes.

“The point, is that you trusted him, and he let you down. A father should never do anything to harm his children,” Bruce walks into the room, “no matter what happens around them.” He sits down in another chair that is at the foot of the bed.

“So, I hear you know our little secret.”

“Bruce. Not now. She’s just been attacked.” Dick urges. That frustrates me, and I think Bruce sees that.

“Yes, and she’s probably feeling anxious to get up and walk around, to do something. Anything. So, I don’t think that you treating her like an invalid who can’t even hold a conversation is making her any happier. Am I right?” Bruce looks at me.

“Too much so.” I agree. “I hate the feeling of being useless. And the fact that me sitting here is only giving me time to think isn’t a good thing. I’d prefer if everyone could treat me like nothing happened at all. Like my dad didn’t just kill two people and attempt to kill another. Like my mom didn’t die three months ago. Like I’m not stuck in this bed until I’m told otherwise. Treat me just like you did at dinner.”

Dick looks like he’s about to argue with me, but I give him a hard stare, and he doesn’t.

“What do you think happened, Bruce? Alternate dimension, or something else?” I ask, bringing us back to our other conversation.

“I’m not sure what to think. I don’t know if it’s reversible either. You might be stuck here.” He cautions. “How much of the future do you know?” he asks.

“Enough that I’m not happy I’m in this specific timeline. In the comics there were many different timelines and one-shot type stories. This one, as far as I know, was never in a comic, but rather a cartoon TV show. A lot happens. I won’t tell you what happens, but I will tell you this. The Kroloteans aren’t your biggest problem.” I tell them ominously.

I wait while Bruce and Dick both think this over. They both look up at the same time, I’m guessing that they’ve come to some sort of conclusion, and they both agree that it’s bad.

“Charlie, do you know what you can do?” Bruce asks all of a sudden.

“What do you mean? What I can do while sitting here?” I ask.

“No, he means like what happened to your dad.” Dick explains, giving me just as much information as Bruce did.

“What happened to my dad?” I worry.

Dick and Bruce lock their eyes again. “Odd how she doesn’t know what she can do.” Bruce muses.

“Is it possible that her consciousness switched between dimensions and the her from this dimension has metahuman abilities?” Dick hypothesized.

“Yes, but it’s more likely that she switched dimensions entirely and that she just needed something traumatic to tap into her latent powers.” Bruce ponders. They aren’t explaining anything to me, and I’m so confused.

“Yeah, but, what if-”

“Stop. I’m sitting right here, listening as you two talk about me, and not understanding a word of it. What do you mean by metahuman abilities? What did I do to my dad? You will answer me, or I will tell you everything that happens in the future.” I threaten. I know that they’re both smart enough to know that they’re not going to want me to tell them the future, so they look at each other and Dick starts to explain.

“When I dropped you off, I waited to make sure that you were okay, before I left. I was going to leave, when the helmet that I let you borrow fell off the bike. I was strapping it back down, when I heard you scream. I dropped everything, and ran to the door. I wasted sometime on trying to get the door open, and by the time I entered, it was already a terrifying sight. There were two zombie like creatures, one was female, one was male, and I’m guessing they were your siblings, they were entirely dead, but they were standing there, attacking your dad. Then all of a sudden, the room darkens to a point that I can’t see, and when I can, your dad is lying unconscious next to your two dead siblings, and you are dying in the hallway. We can only assume that it was you who was controlling the dead, but we do know that you were the reason that everything went dark, because every time we tried to move you and you weren’t conscious, it did the exact same thing. We think you might have metahuman abilities.” Dick concludes.

I’m utterly shocked. I can control the dead and the darkness. What do you say to that, okay? It’s not okay. If they’re right, my powers are some people’s worst nightmares. Jesus Christ, this just made the whole alternate dimension thing a whole lot more complicated.

“Well, that complicates things… what’s going to happen to my dad?” I worry.

“We’re not sure yet. He killed two people, almost three. That’s in no way a good thing. But, if we were to bring this to the police, they would be asking about you, and we can’t really explain to them that we’re Batman and Nightwing and we have our own medical team who could fix you better than a hospital can. No we’re going to have to figure something else out that keeps him in league custody so that we don’t have to explain ourselves.” Bruce explains.

“What about my siblings? What’s happening to their bodies?”

“Whatever you want. We can have them cremated, or buried. Whatever you feel is a good idea, we will do.” Dick comforts. Or, well, he tries to comfort me. It doesn’t really work. Anything that has to do with my older siblings’ dead corpses will never be a comfort, but I appreciate the attempt.

“Alright, um. I’d prefer if you were to bury them. I don’t want to have to deal with making sure that I don’t spill their ashes everywhere.” I admit.

“That can be done. Now, about living situations-”

“I will not be leaving this city.” I interrupt. “I have friends here and I have everything here. I will live on my own at my house if I have to. I don’t care.” Of this I’m certain. There isn’t a soul in the universe that could try and convince me otherwise.

“We weren’t planning on making you leave the city.” Bruce reassures. “I’ve looked and I saw that you have no living family members. I’d be happy to take you in, myself. If you don’t mind, of course.”

I’m shocked. Not of the fact that he’s offering me a place to stay. That is totally his M.O. He saves orphans from living in orphanages and from being pushed around in the system. I’m more surprised that he thought to look. Most people would wait until after the person has woken up to ask them personally. Bruce Wayne wouldn’t wait. He needs the answers now, so he can figure out every variable in a situation.

“Alright, I guess. I mean, the only two possibilities that I have, have just been uttered, because I’m not going into the system. And, as much as I would be fine, I don’t really feel like living on my own in a house where my family died. Thank you.” I say.

“It’s my pleasure.” Bruce promises. “Now, you get some rest. We’ll get everything ready, and figure out the details later. You get better. Heal. And then we’ll talk again and try and figure out your abilities.” And he exits the room.

“You okay?” Dick frets.

“I’m fine.” I tell him. “You don’t have to worry. I’m a lot stronger than I seem.”

“I don’t doubt that, I doubt that you lying to yourself is a good idea.” He says.

“What do you know about me lying to myself? You literally met me- wait,” I interrupt myself. “How long was I out for?”

“Only two hours. It’s about midnight now.”

“Yeah, so you’ve only known me for less than a day. Lying to myself is how I cope with things.” I tell him with confidence.

“It’s not good for you.” He countered.

“HA. Like that means anything to me. You’re looking at the person who would walk on a broken bone because I’m too stubborn to go get it looked at. I don’t care if it’s ‘not good for me’, I just don’t.” I yelled. Breathing heavily. I’m so overwhelmed right now, I don’t need his crap added on top of what I already have to deal with. Lowering the decibel, I say, “Please leave. I’d like to try and rest, and I’d prefer to not do so while I have someone watching me the whole time.”

Reluctantly, Dick stands up and walks towards the door. He turns to face me. “You know, stubbornness is what’s going to get you killed one of these days.” And he leaves.

I take a second to calm down from my rage at Dick, and then I remember why he was even worrying about me in the first place, why I’m the one who had to tell him to leave instead of me leaving him standing there. My dad.

I wonder if I were still in the same dimension, would my dad still have snapped, or is this just a one dimension kind of deal? Should I be worried that I’m all alone on this planet, no family, no home, nothing? How will I be able to deal with these metahuman abilities? I’ve never shown any signs of having them before.

All of these questions are going to have to go unanswered right now. Now is the time to grieve over the loss of my family. I’m allowed to do that. I’m allowed to cry if I want to. The thing is, though, I don’t want to. I want to hit something. I want to move. I want to scream profanities at everything. I need to be on my feet.

I sit up on my own, not leaning against a pillow or the wall. Just sitting on the bed. I’m trying to think about how I can do anything that I want to, without hurting myself.

I’m running some possibilities though my head, when I notice it.

There is a small plant on the other side of the room. This place is completely bare, except for the bed and the plant. And, slowly, as I think about whether or not it’s worth it to move around with such an injury, I’m watching the plant wilt. It’s so slow that I almost wouldn’t have noticed it if the wound on my stomach wasn’t tingling.

I had a crazy thought that the plant was healing me, and I knew I was on too many drugs. But with the look that Alfred gave me when I told him that I couldn’t feel anything confused me. That look told me I should be feeling the pain, but I’m not. I haven’t felt anything since I was at my house.

I do have a theory, though. Freaky death powers right, so maybe killing things makes me stronger. Like eating spinach does for Popeye. Maybe I’m just absorbing the strength from the plant and its making me hurt less.

I go to stand up. It still doesn’t hurt. I put both feet on the floor, and slide off the bed, extremely slowly. When I’m standing, I realize two things. One, I’m not in any pain whatsoever. Two, I’m wearing a pair of sweatpants that aren’t mine, and a sports bra, and that’s it. Whatever. I can deal with the second point later.

I walk over to the plant, and I reach out. The closer I get the faster it seems to die. I grab one of the leaves, and it dies immediately, spreading out away from my hand like poison. I can feel something, though I’m not sure if it’s making me stronger. It feels like there’s water running from my hand, up my arm, to my chest, and down to the gash on my stomach. It starts to tingle more intensely. I pull back the bandaging, just in time to watch it close fully. Healing until there’s nothing but a scar left.

I was right the first time. The plant was healing me. Cool.

I test my movement. Twisting my abdomen, bending over to touch my toes, poking at it. It all seems fine. Like the injury occurred two years ago, not two hours. I walk out of the room, after leaving the bandages on the bed that I had made, and I find myself in the Bat Cave.

It’s huge, and cold, and dark, and everything that I’ve ever dreamed of. I walk around, surprised to find that there’s no one down here. _They probably went on patrol._ I think.

Walking around, I find everything that I could ever dream of being in the Bat Cave. All of the computers, weapons, trophies, and bats that anyone could imagine, the platforms for the Batmobile, and the bikes for the birds, the cases that they keep their uniforms in, everything. I come across a small gym area, and I see a punching bag that I can use.

I find some wraps for my hands in a small basket beside the bag, and I put them on.

I start out light, but after a while, I’m punching the bag hard enough that if no one knew that I was doing this, they did now. There was no hiding my anger.

After a while of angrily punching things, I stop and take a breather. I find a water bottle sitting on one of the benches, and it has fresh ice in it. Alfred’s been down here. I know that he’s probably seen that my stab wound has healed, and he has no doubt cleaned out the room I was using to recover in. he’s got questions, but like he always did in the comics, he’s going to keep them to himself and find the answers on his own.

I grab the water bottle and sit down on the bench. I take a few deep breaths, and try to calm down. I’m no longer stuck in bed, I got to hit things until I felt better, I got to explore the Bat Cave without anyone around, and formulate my own opinions about things. I didn’t get to yell profanities, but I do feel much better.

I get up, and follow the pathways until I’m faced with a set of stairs. I climb them, and stop at the top in front of a door. I weigh my choices. Go up there and actually speak with someone, or stay down here and stew in my anger. I choose people.

Opening the door, I know that I’m in Bruce’s study, behind the clock. There is a desk in the room, one wall is covered in bookshelves which are entirely full of books of varying sizes and colors. I walk through the room, and out into the hall.

This is on the first floor, so I used my lesser amounts of knowledge of the first floor to make my way to the kitchen.

I stop in the doorway and lean against the door jam. Alfred is preparing some sort of food. He always is when I see him.

“Good evening, Madam Charlie, I see you are feeling better.” He comments.

“Uh, yeah, I might have found out another power of mine. I think they are all linked by death, because I healed myself by killing the plant that was in the room with me.” I speculate.

“That is quite incredible, I must say. Are you hungry?” Alfred, ever the good butler. It seems he’s making a sandwich. It looks good.

“Not really. I should be fine for now.” I smile.

“That wasn’t a question, Madam Charlie. You are going to eat this sandwich, and you are going to eat it before Masters Bruce, Richard, and Timothy get back.” Alfred insists.

“I can see why Bruce likes you.” I say as I walk forward to the island and sit on one of the stools. “You know when someone is being stubborn.” I’m grinning. 

I grab the sandwich and take a bite. It’s amazing, and I tell Alfred as much, to which he answers with a small smile and “I’ve worked for Master Bruce for over fifty years. I know how to make a sandwich.” And I laugh a little bit.

I quickly finish the sandwich, and Alfred give me a glass of milk to go with it. I thank him and drink the milk. Once I’m done, Alfred takes the glass and the plate that held the sandwich from the counter of the island, where I’m still sitting, and puts them in a rather large machine that can only be a dish washer.

Once the dishes are in, he starts the load, and I hear the boys returning. They all come and meet in the kitchen. They all stop in the doorway when they see me.

“Charlie, I thought you were resting. What are you doing out of bed?” Bruce asks. I turn to look at him. He sees that I’m not wearing any bandages, and that there is no more wound. “How did that happen?”

“I think I found another one of those metahuman abilities. And I think I found a common denominator. Death. I healed myself by killing a plant that was in the room. All it left was a scar.” I explain and point toward it. I’m still not wearing a shirt, but that’s fine by me. I hate shirts.

All of them look surprised. It’s probably a lot to take in, but I’m just kind of taking everything in stride right now. I can’t afford to break down over every little thing, because there’s too many of them.

“Well, that’s handy.” Tim pipes up. I smile.

“Yeah, kind of, except I have to kill things to make it happen. I killed a plant and the stab wound disappeared. What would I have to kill to heal myself from something more life threatening?” I ponder. I can see all of them thinking about the same thing.

“Alright, enough talk about Madam Charlie. All of you go shower, and get to bed. I will show her where she will be staying. Master Dick, tomorrow morning, if you would please take her to her house to grab a few things.” Alfred is amazing. Everyone is nodding and moving towards the door all at once, as soon as he’s done speaking.

“Alfred I think you have a metahuman ability of your own. Ordering them to do things.” I joke. He gives me a small smile.

“No, Madam Charlie, they just prefer to listen to me, because they know the consequences if they don’t. I will hide everyday things from them when I go to clean their rooms. Sometimes it’s soap, sometimes a comb, and once, all of Master Timothy’s socks at the same time, except for one single sock.” Alfred smirks devilishly, and I laugh. Alfred could give the trickster a few lessons on how to mess with the minds of the many.

“Alright, now, this way.” He leads me up to the same floor as Dick’s room, but down the hall. He stops in front of one of the doors, and opens it. It has many of the same features as Dick’s, but it is still slightly different. The engravings on the wood are different, the computer is smaller, by far, and the room had more black. The wood paneling was almost black, the rug was black, and the duvet was black. Where Dick’s room is brown, mine is black.

I turn back to Alfred, “Thank you.” I say and he bids me goodnight, for the second time that night.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, so I know I posted all seven of these chapters in one day, but I'm planning on a bi-weekly posting schedule after this. I would go with weekly, but I have a hard time getting ideas on what to write, so if I leave it at bi-weekly, I would be able to keep up some of my buffer writing. I do have a few more chapters left that are written, but in the case that I don't write as much as I would like to in the next two weeks, I wouldn't have a problem and you guys would still get something to read. 
> 
> when I finish the story, I will probably do the same thing and post every chapter that I have on the same day.
> 
> still appreciating comments and suggestions.

When I wake up, it’s to someone yelling.

“Tim! Get the hell out of the bathroom right now!” I hear Dick’s voice and groan. I remember everything that happened last night. I stand up, and put on a plain black t-shirt that was put on my desk at some point last night.

I am not a morning person whatsoever, so whatever little game that Dick and Tim are playing, is going to just piss me off. I open the door to my room, and walk down the hall. Dick is still pounding on the door to the bathroom. I stop him.

“Tim. If you don’t open this door and shut Dick the hell up right now, I am going to break this door down and rip off your testicles with a pair of needle nosed pliers. You got it?” I ask. Through the door, I hear someone scrambling, dropping things, and cursing. I’d say I’ve thoroughly scared the crap out of the kid.

When he opens the door, I push Dick out of the way and enter myself. I use the toilet, and wash my hands, and then I leave. Dick is still standing there looking shocked. I walk away.

I go downstairs and see Bruce and Tim sitting down for breakfast. I go and sit with them. I grab a few pancakes, and some fruit salad. “Morning Charlie.” Bruce smiles. I look at him. “Got it. Not a morning person.” He goes back to his breakfast and I go back to mine.

A few minutes later, Dick walks into the room, and sits beside me. He seems to have gotten over his shock. Bruce greets him as well. We all eat in silence. And then Alfred walks into the room with a tray and four separate meals on it. I’m guessing that those are our lunches. He walks over to Bruce and puts one down beside him. Then he does the same to Tim, Dick, and I.

Dick has his backpack with him, so he puts his in his bag, and then opens another pocket and puts mine in too. I look at him.

“What, do you want to carry it without a bag until we get to your house?” I shake my head. “Then you’re welcome.” Apparently Dick isn’t a morning person either.

We get up, and Bruce wishes us both a good day. I feel like this is a common thing, this is what happens every day. I’m happy that I’m included, but it also makes me sad, because I can no longer pretend that this is all fake, that I’m going to go home and see my siblings alive, and my dad not a murderer. I sigh.

We walk into the garage, and go to the same bike. I feel like this is the only bike that Dick ever uses. Oh well. I like it. He passes me a helmet, and grabs one for himself. We both get on, and he pulls out of the garage. Again, he goes slowly on the property and faster on the road.

We make it back to my house, and I begin to panic. I don’t know if I can go back in there, but I have to. I will.

I get off the bike, and pause.

“You okay?” Dick whispers. The last time he asked that question, I exploded on him. I’m surprised he even tried this time. That’s what makes me answer honestly.

“I don’t know.” I confess. “I’m not sure if I can go back in there, but I have to. I know I have to. I just. We grew up there. I’ve lived there my entire life. When my mom died, we all sat in the same room, doing the things that we normally did, just instead of being in separate corners of the house, it was in the same room. We stayed there for hours. Kind of like a vigil. Now that I’m the only one left, I don’t know if I can go and be in that room, or any of the rooms. There are too many memories, both good and bad, that I just don’t think I can relive right now.”

“You don’t have to go in alone. I can go with you.” He tells me. I nod. I need someone to hold me to the present, and not to indulge in the memories of the past.

We walk up to the house, and I reach for my keys, only to realize that I don’t have them. They’re in my bag inside. I look at Dick.

He pulls out a lock pick, and opens the door in seconds. I’m not the least bit surprised.

I take a deep breath, preparing myself, and I step through the door. I see my bag where I left it, and I see that the blood has been cleaned up off the floor. All of it. I’m happy that it’s not there anymore. There was no place for it in the building that I grew up in.

I walk into my room, and grab some of my clothes to wear. I tell Dick to leave, and I change quickly. I let him back into my room, and I sit on my bed.

“My sister and I used to do basically the same thing, every day. We would get home from school, sit on our laptops for a few hours, make and then eat supper, sit on our computers for a few more hours, and then she would come in here and we would gossip about anything. Her day, my day, her friends, my friends, whatever bullshit that was being told on the radio, YouTube, anything. We did this from when she was in grade eight, until her second year of college, which was this year. We used to sit on my bed and just talk, and whenever one of my parents would come near, we would stop. It bothered my dad so much, that at one point, he tried to put a voice recorder in my room, like a spy. He, of course, failed. I saw it and when my sister entered the room, I moved the recorder near the radio and turned it on. You couldn’t hear the conversation at all. When he went to listen to it, my dad came into my room and yelled until his face was red. He was so upset that I had outsmarted him that he said I wasn’t allowed on my laptop for a week. I then told him I needed it for school, and he just... he was so mad, that I started to laugh. I was laughing so hard, it sounded hysterical. He joined in, and soon, we were both in hysterics. I should probably tell you that he and I had both stayed up the night before, driving my mom five hours north so she could go to work for the week, and then we had to drive five hours back. So ten hours that both of us were awake that we should have been sleeping. Anyway, we were laughing and laughing and laughing. Neither of us could stop. I was trying my hardest, though. We were laughing so loudly that my brother, who was doing homework, came up stairs to tell us to shut up. When he saw what we looked like, though, he started to laugh with us. Now there were three. My sister, feeling left out, decided that she wanted to know what was so funny. So she came into the room, and we were all just laughing. None of us could stop. She was so confused that it just made everything funnier. I swear, we laughed for like, an hour that day. It was amazing.”

I finish my story and I’m smiling sadly. Dick is standing in front of me, trying to figure out whether or not we should leave soon. And we should. I need to leave.

I tell Dick to help me grab all of my things. I take my dad’s truck and stuff it full of the things that I will be needing. Dick rides his bike in front of me, while I drive the truck behind him. We head toward the manor.

Once we’re there, I leave the truck up front, and Tim and Dick help me bring my things into my room.

When all of the boxes are upstairs, I take the truck into the garage, and park it in the space that had been cleared for me earlier.

We make quick work of everything, and we’re done by the time that Bruce gets home.

We eat another delicious dinner from Alfred, and then, Bruce tries to figure out what my abilities are. We’ve associated them with death, so we head to a cemetery.

We try everything. Raising the dead, talking to the dead, healing myself using the plants. The only thing that worked was the healing thing.

Bruce had taken a small dagger and he placed it in my palm, telling me to heal myself with the grass. I took the dagger, ran it across my palm until it drew blood. I then used the same hand and put it in the grass.

When I took my hand away, I only had a very thin scar. I looked at the grass, and it was dead, but only in a small circle, like someone had left a candle there for a few months and the grass couldn’t get sunlight.

I looked at Bruce. He seemed to ponder this. “You said that when you healed the stab wound, it killed the entire plant, correct?” he asks.

“Yeah, why? Do you think that the severity of the wound determines the amount of death that I create?” I theorize.

“I’m thinking just that. But, I’m also thinking about what would happen if you were, say, stabbed in the heart in a forest. Would you absorb the whole forest, or would it just be the plants that touched you, and would it be enough if it were the latter? What would happen if you were touching a human at the time? Or an animal, for that matter. We’re going to need some more tests.” He concluded.

 

 

 

After training, I went back to the manor. I had nothing to do, but I wasn’t doing any more about my powers today.

Dick and Tim were going out on patrol by themselves today. Bruce had some work to do.

I decide that I need to move. I go down to the Bat Cave, and to that little training area that I had found before. I wrap my hands again, and begin on the bag.

I’m so focused that I don’t even hear Bruce walk up to me. “Bring your hands up more. You’ll get punched in the face if you’re not careful.” He corrects. I look at him, and fix my form.

I keep going, not saying a word. And eventually, I forget that he’s there. Until he decides it’s a good idea to try and right hook me in the gut. I turn around and go to elbow him in the face. He steps out of my reach. He keeps me at a close enough distance that he can reach me, but when I try and get closer to hit him, he just moves out of the way. The next time he goes to land a hit, it’s a kick to the lower ribs. I let him hit me, and grab his leg as soon as he has. His eyes widen, and I pull as hard as I can on his leg with one arm, while pulling my other arm back to punch him in the face. I let go of his leg, and he falls to the ground.

“Bring your hands up more. You’ll get punched in the face if you’re not careful.” I mock. I reach down and help him up. He smiles at me.

“That was good. A little slow, but the final move was perfect. Though, I wouldn’t let yourself get hit too often, it was really good.” He praises. It’s odd. I’ve never been in a fighting class before, so I don’t really know what I’m doing, I’ve been taught how to punch, sure but I’ve never been taught any particular technique for anything else. I was just winging it.

“I hope you realize that I’ve never fought before. Not even sparring in a self defense class. Nothing. That was all just bullshit that I figured might work.” I say, heading over to the same bench as before, grabbing the water bottle that I had brought down with me. “When I grabbed your leg, I just wanted out of the fight. I was getting tired. You could see it in my punches. They were getting weaker. I decided it would be a funny thing if I were to punch you in the face, because that’s what you were trying to teach me. To block.”

“You’ve never been taught anything? How the hell did you know all that if you were never taught anything?” he asks incredulously.

“I don’t know. That was me improvising.” I admit.

He begins to grin. “Well, then I guess it’s time you had some proper self defense lessons.” He beams.

 

 

 

 

Dick and Tim get back from patrol, not too much later, to find Bruce and me fighting. He’s trying to teach me some offensive moves, and apparently I’m a fast learner.

“Did you know?” Tim whispers to Dick as they stand there watching me and Bruce honest to god struggle for who will stay offensive, and who will defend themselves.

“No. shut up.” He whispers back, completely transfixed on what is happening in front of him. I’ve gotten pretty good in the last couple of hours.

Finally, Bruce lands me on my ass for the millionth time tonight.

“Good job, but next time, try and remember, just because you’re on offense, doesn’t mean you don’t have to block.” He tells me as he helps me up. I smile at him, and nod my head.

“Bruce, I thought you had work to do?” Dick calls.

“I did. But I finished. I was going to go out and catch up with you two, but then I saw her on the bag and decided to help her out a little.” He explains.

“A little? If you only helped a little, why is she so damn good?” Tim exclaimed.

“What can I say? I’m a fast learner.” I smirk. Dick looks at me and grins, much like Bruce had been doing for the past few hours. Meanwhile Tim was staring, trying to figure out if I was telling the truth.

“Well, that leaves me one less thing that I have to worry about, you not getting hurt.” Dick smiles.

“You wouldn’t have had to worry about it anyway. I can take care of myself.” I tell him.

“I know.”

“Alright,” Bruce sighs. “Everyone hit the showers. It’s time for bed.”

“Good night, Bruce.”


	8. Chapter 8

I wake up the next day, feeling too confined. It feels like I’m being squished. I walk out of my room, and I still feel restrained. I run down the stairs, and out the front doors. I feel like running. I sprint as far as I can. I run around the property, and then down the driveway. I’m on the street. I keep going, until I can’t run anymore.

Once I’ve stopped, I’m so out of breath that I have to sit down. And I do. I find the nearest street sign, and I lean against it as I sit. I catch my breath, and realize, I’m lost. I have no idea where I ran from, I just had to move.

I check my pockets, and find that I also don’t have my phone. I don’t know what to do, but I decide that I can’t just sit here. I get up, and try and follow where looks more familiar. I make it pretty far, but then I begin to not recognize anything. I turn back.

I do that a few more times, but still get nowhere. I’m about to give up, when I hear an engine. It’s not a car, it’s a motorbike.

Dick pulls up beside me, and hands me a helmet. He doesn’t say anything. He just passes me the helmet, and smiles. I put on the helmet, and get on the bike.

Dick turns around, and brings me back to the manor. We get off in the garage, and I give him the helmet. He turns to me, and gives me a look. I feel like I should explain.

“I just wanted to run. I got kind of lost, that’s all.” And he nods.

“You’re not the first of us that has forgotten to pay attention to where they were going to. It’s fine, just next time, try and bring your phone.” He seems relieved. “Now, let’s head upstairs. Alfred’s already called everyone to breakfast.”

We walk up through to the kitchen and then into the dining room. I sit in the same spot as always. I grab some food, and try to keep my eyes down. I look up eventually, and notice that everyone is doing the same as me. No one is looking at one another. They are all keeping to themselves. It’s weird.

Once breakfast is over, I go and change, and then hit the training area. I go down there, and then immediately head toward the punching bag.

I spend so much time down there that I don’t even notice when Dick, Tim and Bruce show up to leave, for what I don’t know, and then actually leave. I just keep going at the bag.

I stop to take a break, it has to have been hours since I started.

I notice that Alfred is sitting at the computer. He usually only does this when something big is happening. He’s probably giving someone some information from the databases.

I walk over to him, and he has a few files open on the monitors of the Bat Computer. Most of them are on the Joker, and some on Harley Quin, and then there is one that is a floor plan.

At the top of the floor plan, there is the name of the building, or buildings in this case, Playland Fun House. I know that name. This is the place that Tim almost dies at. I have to help. Alfred is talking with Bruce about heading to the house of mirrors. This is going to be happening soon. I can’t just sit here.

I hear fighting over the com link. I don’t want to think about what will happen if I don’t make it in time, but I do need to think about a plan. I see a mask lying on the ground, and remember that from the comics, Tim is bad for ruining his mask. They must have a ton of extras for him. I grab the mask, and run upstairs. I have a pair of black jeans, and a black jacket that I can wear. I decide that it’s a good idea.

I’ve been watching Dick drive his bike for days. I’m observant enough to know the basics of driving a bike, so I run upstairs, change from my workout clothes, and put on the clothes that I figured would work.

I run back to the garage, and I grab a helmet, I run to the least expensive looking bike, and turn it on.

I’m terrified of actually driving one of these myself, but I have to. Tim can’t get as hurt as he does in the comics. It takes him weeks to recover. I won’t let it happen.

I stop thinking about my fear, and I start the bike. I try and take it slow through the garage and the property, but I fail. I accelerate too quickly but I keep going. No is not the time to think about manners, no matter what Alfred says.

When I get to the fun house, I push past the house of mirrors. Tim’s not going to be in there anymore, he’s going to be near the Ferris wheel, and that’s where I go. I get there just in time to see Tim, dodging Harley’s hammer like his life depends on it, which it does. She’s about to actually hit him, when I catch her attention.

I get off the bike, and she comes running toward me. She grabs me, and turns me towards Tim. “Well, well. Looky here. Mistah J’s not going to be happy that I’m not going for you, but I guess I don’t have to crush your skull, if I can crush your spirit. How do you feel when you can’t save the damsel in distress? Huh, little birdy?”

“Harley, let her go. You’ve already said that it’s me you want. You don’t need to bring her into this.” Tim doesn’t even know who I am. This is why he’s a hero. He will save everyone.

“Oh, but little birdy, this is going to be so much more fun. But fine.” Harley pushes me away from her, I stumble and almost fall, but I catch myself. “You can have her, though, she might be a little _broken_.”

She swings her hammer at my head. I’m still wearing my helmet, but I know that if she were to hit me with it, she would crack both my helmet, and my skull. I can’t stop it, so I close my eyes, and hold my breath, wishing I hadn’t been stupid enough to try and save Tim. I’m no hero, he is.

I wait for the blow, but it never comes. I open my eyes, and I’m nowhere near where I was before. I’m on the other side of Harley, both her and Tim are looking confused. When Tim sees me, his face doesn’t change much. He just smirks a little bit. I take off the helmet without a sound, and his eyes widen. He recognizes me, even with the mask. He smirks even more.

That’s when Harley turns around, and sees me. “There you are! No one gets away from me that easily, little girl.” She sneers. I smirk.

“Yeah, well, no one kills me so easily, little bitch.” I snark. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I charge her, and she doesn’t have enough time to swing her hammer before I get under her guard. I hit all of her weak spots- her throat, her stomach, anywhere that I’ve been taught will hurt her the most.

She cries out, and tries to block me. I knock her out with a swift kick to the head, and step back. I’m not here to kill her, just here to make sure she doesn’t kill anyone else.

“ _What_ the _hell_ are you _doing here?”_ Dick hisses and grabs my arm. I didn’t even realize that he was out here. I was too busy trying to save Tim.

“I’m stopping something that doesn’t have to happen.” I say. I pull my arm out of his grasp, and step away from him. He seems honestly angry that I’m here. It’s probably because I took one of his bikes.

“Don’t you know how dangerous this is? You of all people should. You could have been hurt, you could have died. Why the hell did you think that this was a good idea?” he demands.

“Because, Tim would have almost died. He never would have been the same again had I not stepped in when I did.” I snap. “Harley would have hit him in the head with her hammer, and he would have gotten serious brain damage. It would have taken him weeks just to wake up. There was no way I was letting that happen.”

All of them look surprised. Batman is almost no different, but I saw him still for a second. Dick stops his anger, and looks at me with utter shock on his face. And Tim. Tim looks scared. Scared of what might have happened if I hadn’t shown up when I did.

“That’s why I showed up here tonight. To prevent all of the pain that would have come from that.”

“How did you get here, not half an hour ago, you were down in the cave, beating the shit out of the punching bag. You couldn’t have walked, and I don’t see your truck anywhere. You don’t know where the keys to anything else is, so… what did you take?” Dick asks. I point to where I stopped the bike.

“You took one of the bikes? I thought you’d never ridden one before like, yesterday.”

“I’ve been watching you drive yours around everywhere. I’m a pretty observant person. I was terrified, of course, it was probably more dangerous for me to try and use that bike than it was for me to fight Harley, but I don’t care. I barely got here in time at all.” I explain.

“Dude, what you did was awesome!” Tim exclaims. “I don’t even care if I could have had permanent brain damage that was amazing!”

“What was?” Bruce wondered.

“Um, I think we found another ability of mine.” I mention.

Bruce gives me a look, and says, “We’ll talk about this later, but for now, we’re going to get these guys where they belong. Nightwing, handcuff Harley and put her with the others. Wait there for the authorities. Robin, bring that bike back to the cave. You,” he looks at me, “are going in the Batmobile with me.”

Everyone breaks away. Dick grabs Harley Quin, and walks back toward the house of mirrors. Tim, walks towards me, and I pass him the helmet. He turns back around and walks over to the bike that I drove here. He gets on and starts it.

Batman and I walk to the main entrance of the fun house. We get into the Batmobile, and he takes off his cowl. He turns to me, and gives me a look. I take off the mask that I borrowed, and offer it to him.

“Keep it.” He says with a smile. I widen my eyes in shock.

“Seriously?” I squeak. He nods. I grin. “What does this mean?”

“It means that I know that you won’t be able to stop yourself from doing something like this again, so I want to train you so that when you do, no one really has to worry about you. We are going to do this as fast as we can. You already have some combat training in you, now we just need to learn about your metahuman abilities and then we can begin to integrate them into your training.”

“Wow. Thanks, Bruce.” I beam.

“Just know, that if you’re really going to do this, you’re going to get hurt. Training will be hard, but the real deal will be harder.” Bruce warns. I nod. “Good.” He turn back to the wheel, and starts the car. We start to leave, just as the cops start to show up.

We take side roads and we end up nowhere near the manor. We head down a dirt road and stop at a seemingly random part of the road.

Bruce hits a button on the dash, and the ground in front of us splits open and becomes a ramp down under the road.

We go down for a while, and end up in a bunker like place, with concrete walls, and fluorescent lighting running along the ceiling.

It seems pretty straight, we follow it for about ten minutes, and then it opens up into the Bat Cave. Bruce parks the Batmobile on its pedestal.

Tim is already waiting for us. He’s changed and is sitting at the chair for the Bat Computer. We both head up there, and Tim gets up from the chair, once he sees Bruce.

Once there, Bruce sits down and opens up a program. He selects three of the ‘recent’ items, and has to search for the fourth. He opens them in different windows, and four videos start running. All of them from different viewpoints. One is what I saw, so I’m going to guess that the others are what everyone else saw.

We stand there watching the videos for a while. Once it gets to the point where I’m about to get hit with Harley’s hammer, I wait for the yelling to begin. Bruce is going to yell at me because I was about to get hit and didn’t do anything about it. I’m watching on what I’m assuming to be Tim’s and it looks different from what I remember.

I remember closing my eyes and hoping that my death wasn’t too painful. What I see is me, with the bike helmet on, not moving at all. Not even flinching.

And then all of a sudden, it’s like the shadows are attacking me. They surround me until you can’t see anymore of me. The next time I’m seen, it’s on the other side of Harley, and she’s screaming about where I went. All of this happens in the span of half a second.

“What the hell was that?” Dick’s voice is all of a sudden behind me. Apparently, he showed up a little while ago.

“That would be Charlie’s new superpower.” Tim claims.

“Is that really how that looked?” I ask. “I was actually squeezing my eyes shut, hoping that I wouldn’t die.” Dick glares at my admission.

“From my point of view, you were staring down Harley’s hammer, and then at the last second, you figured out a way to get away. It was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” Tim excitedly rambles.

“What was going on with that whole, darkness, shadows thing? What was that?” Dick asks.

“I have no idea. I didn’t even know that I could do that until it happened. But, I mean, didn’t you say that when my dad was attacking me, I made the entire place darken, maybe it was something like that. This is still all new to me, though. I wasn’t sure how I was going to avoid that hammer. I didn’t think I could. I was just going to get hit. What does teleportation have to do with death?” I wonder.

“I guess that the whole death theory is only that. A theory. We’re back at square one. We have no idea what you’re capable of, but you have more powers than any other that we have found. Most can only do one, maybe two things, you’ve proven that you can heal yourself, control the dead, and teleport now. These are all major powers, and I have the feeling that this is only the beginning. You have the potential for more than what you’ve shown us.” Bruce reveals.

“You can’t be serious, Bruce. More than three major powers, can a human being even handle that much potential without burning up?” Dick questions.

“Most can’t, but, out of everyone that you know, who do you think would be capable of such an extreme. Most normal people have a problem adjusting to one ability, but Charlie here has now adjusted to three, and to her family being either dead, or imprisoned. All in one week. If she has more, she will be able to handle them. I can tell.” Bruce seems to ponder the possibility of it all.

“Look,” I dare. “I get that it’s a big deal, three powers, maybe more. Great. I’m just not here to listen to you spout a bunch of 'what if's and 'maybe's. I now almost definitely have three powers, I’d like to finish figuring them out, and then we can work on whether or not I have more, got it?”

“I understand, Charlie, but if you do, we need to find them sooner rather than later.” Bruce tries to reason.

“Sorry, but I’d rather spend my time on what we know, than on what is just an idea.” I stand firm.

“Bruce, it’s not an unreasonable request. If she does show the possibility of other powers, we can add that to the training regime. Tackle them as they come, not as we want them to come.” Dick proposed. “It is possible that if we try and force them, it could be detrimental to her health.”

“Yes, but-’’

“Master Bruce, perhaps if she does not wish it, Madam Charlie will not cooperate with you at all. The more you try and force your will on her, the more she will fight. Stubbornness is a character trait that both of you poses, though she seems to have more.” Alfred chimes in. I wasn’t even aware he was in the cave, I thought he was in the manor above. Do they all really have to be ninjas?

“Fine. We’ll train you with what we know about. But when you do show the potential for other metahuman abilities, we will try and hone them as well.” Bruce agrees. I smile. “Now, it’s late and everyone has injuries that need to heal. Hit the showers and head to bed.”

“Yes sir.” Tim, Dick, and I answer. We all smile at each other. We’ve won one argument together. I wonder what else we can do.

Once upstairs, we break off again. All to our separate rooms. I shower, and then I go to bed. It’s been a long day.

 

 

 

_The hammer. The shadows. The cold. I open my eyes, like I did earlier, and its still shadows. Everything is shadow._

_“Charlie, what have you done?!” dick’s voice pleads. “Why? You were here, you knew what would happen, why couldn’t you have saved him?” I’m confused, who didn’t I save?_

_The shadows disappear slowly, so agonizingly slow, and I see Dick kneeling next to someone on the ground. I step forward, and I see blood. All of it pooling around this person’s crushed head._

_The head turns. It’s Tim. That’s who I didn’t save. “Charlie, you should have saved me. You shouldn’t have disappeared. If you had taken the hit, I would be fine. You could have saved me, if you were braver.” He sputters._

_“Tim, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” I whisper, falling to my knees, crying. “I’m so sorry.”_

_His face changes, until it’s my sister lying there. I cry even more. “Jessie.” I can’t even look at her. It’s too painful._

_“Charlie, you piece of shit. You should have come home earlier. But no, instead you had to stay and flirt with some_ kid. _” She spits. I feel betrayed. She’s always been a little salty, but this is downright hostile._

_And again, her face changes. This time. It’s my brother._

_“You whore.” He’s always been hostile, but he would never call me something like that. “You slutty little whore. You can’t even keep it in your pants long enough to save your family.” He seethes. He’s lying there broken, but he’s still able to hurt me more than ever. “I swear, it’s like you can’t even do anything right.”_

_He begins to move like he’s about to stand up. “Someone should fix you. Someone has to make you understand that just because you can open your damn legs, doesn’t mean that you should.” He’s standing now. “It means that you probably shouldn’t, because if you do, someone might just die.”_

_He lunges forward, covered in blood, and rage etched into his face. I know that they blame me. Who wouldn’t?_

_I let him attack me. He has every right to. He claws at my face, crushes my bones, and steals the air from my lungs. I let him. I only cry out when he seems to be done with me. He must have as much of my blood on him as his own._

_I’m sobbing. Screaming apologies and nonsense._ “Charlie!” _why is dick yelling at me like he cares. I killed Tim. He shouldn’t care about me at all._

“Charlie, wake up!” I gasp and open my eyes. I’m lying in my bed in the manor, not on the ground at the fun house. My brother isn’t beating the shit out of me in vengeance. Tim isn’t dead.

“Charlie, hey. Charlie, look at me.” Dick grabs my face. He’s leaning over the side of my bed, with a concerned look on his face. “Charlie, are you okay?” he’s genuinely concerned. Good. The Dick from my dream was an asshole for blaming me about Tim’s death.

“I will be.” I breathe, relaxing from my previously tense position into a much more comfortable one.

“Are you sure? Do you want to talk about it?” he asks, sitting down on the edge of my bed.

“I’m sure. You don’t want to know what kind of messed up things that my mind can think of.” I tell him.

“I’m sure I could deal with it.” He reassures. I give him a look.

“Trust me, I’m not going to tell you what happened.”

“Alright, well. As long as you think you’re fine, I guess I’ll go.” He gets up, and walks to the door.

“No, Dick, Wait.” I have no idea what ‘m doing, I just know that as soon as I’m alone, I’m not going to be okay. “Can you stay?” I ask.

“Uh… sure. Yeah, I can stay.” He says, almost relieved. I have no idea why, he just seems that way.

He walks back over to my bed, and sits down next to me, again. We fall into a comfortable silence. Neither of us really wanting to talk about anything, and yet, it’s not awkward.

We lay there for I have no idea how long, but soon, I fall asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

When I wake up, Dick is still beside me. I don’t want to wake him up, he looks too peaceful, so I quietly slip out of the bed, and to my dresser. I grab some clothes, and I head to the bathroom, not making a sound.

I change in the bathroom, and tiptoe back into my room. Dick is still sleeping.

I grab my laptop, and I go to the lounge. This morning I don’t have any training, Bruce is on a business trip, and I’m going to convince Dick that I don’t need it today. Tim won’t bother me.

I sit on the couch, and I go on the internet. I go to my Facebook, and I see a notification. It’s not uncommon for me to have one, so I check it, expecting it to be just someone sending me a game invite.

It’s not. It’s a post on my page, from the city police force. They are asking about my whereabouts. No one has commented on the post yet, but it was only posted about three hours ago, so no one is awake enough to have seen it.

I decide that I don’t want to check my Facebook anymore. I will wait until Dick and Tim are up and ask them what to do.

I go and play solitaire on my computer for a while, and then Alfred tells me to go to the dining room for breakfast.

Dick and Tim are both looking a little exhausted, but I feel like I got the best sleep of my life, not including the nightmare.

“Morning, guys.” I greet them with a smile. They both glare.

“How are you so awake?” Tim groans, banging his head against the table. I giggle.

“I woke up about an hour and a half ago. I’ve had time to wake up and not be dead on my feet.” I tell him. He grunts in my general direction, and Alfred walks into the room with his usual cart of food.

“Master Timothy, please take your face off of the table. I am about to put food there, and it would be rude to put it in your hair.” Alfred says.

Tim lifts up his head and Alfred puts a plate of food down in front of him. As soon as Alfred has moved on, Tim attacks his food with gusto.

Alfred goes around the table, passing us food and drinks. No one talks as we eat.

Once we’re done, Dick and Tim both seem to have woken up some. I feel like I should mention what I found online this morning.

“Guys, I might have found something.” I start. They both give me a look.

“I went onto my Facebook this morning and the police had asked that if anyone knows where I am, they should call it in. they want to question me.” I tell them.

Neither look very surprised, just concerned.

“What did you do? Had anyone said anything yet?” Dick asks.

“I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t sure what I should do, and no one had said anything. I wanted to tell you guys so that I could get some insight on how to go about this.” I admit.

“Well, you should probably go and talk to them, before they think that you’re purposefully avoiding them. If they think that you’re avoiding them, then they’ll think that you know something, which will make our cover story less believable.” Dick explains.

“Alright, well, they posted it early this morning, so I can probably put it off as not being awake yet.” I go back to the lounge and grab my laptop. Dick had followed me, and is now watching over my shoulder, making sure that I say the right things.

I make a comment on the original post, saying that I’m at the Wayne Manor, where I had been staying for the last couple of days. This way, when they come for me, I can be near the people who can help.

I wait for the entire day for the police to show up. They don’t. I’m a little stressed by the end of the day. I think Dick can tell when he tells me to use a wrist computer if he and Tim need me to, instead of staying near the main Bat Computer. He knows that I’m going to be hitting the bag.

They don’t need much, just someone to tell them what’s going over the police scanners. I spend all of the time that I’m not being productive, punching the shit out of the punching bag. It feels good.

When they get back, we all head to bed. It’s been a quiet night, not many people trying to ruin their lives.

I wake up after a similar nightmare as the previous one, and Dick waking me up again. He stays, without me asking him this time, and I’m grateful. If this is going to be a regular thing, and I’m going to want someone to stay with me, I’d rather not have to ask every time. It’s bad enough that I need him to stay at all.

I wake up in the morning, and Dick is still there. I try and do what I did yesterday, and get up without waking him up, but when I move the blanket and move to stand, Dick grabs my hand.

“Ahh!” I shriek, ripping my hand away and leaping from the bed. I spin around, and see Dick sitting up, on the bed. “You scared the shit out of me! Don’t do that.”

“Sorry.” He mumbles.

“It’s fine. What are you doing up? It’s,” I grab my phone, “6:30 in the morning.”

“I don’t know. What are you doing up?”

“I never sleep much. When I do, I end up extremely tired all day. Basically the opposite of everyone else.” I explain. He nods.

“I get it.” He says. “So, now that we’re both up, do you want to train? I can tell that you’ve been itching to.” I smile.

“Of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know that there are some major flaws in literally every part of this story, but if you find anything that's bothering you, please don't forget to leave a comment so that I can fix it. It would be really helpful. This is my first fic and I want to know everything that you think about it, whether its good or bad I don't really care, just let me know your thoughts and feelings. Thanks.


	10. Chapter 10

“Master Richard, Madam Charlie, breakfast is being served upstairs.” Alfred walks into the Bat Cave, and sees me on the trapeze, with Dick telling me what to do. “I can bring it down for you, if you wish.” He mentions.

“No, Alfred. We’ll be right up.” Dick calls, before trying to describe to me how to land properly.

I stick the landing, and look up at him. That was amazing. Flying through the air like a kite. I can see the appeal. No wonder his family made that their profession. I don’t mention my thoughts, though. That would be insensitive.

“C’mon.” Dick says, wrapping an arm around my shoulder, as if to hold me to the ground. “Time for breakfast.”

We make our way upstairs, and when we reach the dining room, we see Bruce and Tim have already started their breakfasts.

“Morning.” Bruce greets.

“Hey, Bruce,” I smile. “I didn’t think you were going to be home until tomorrow, why come back early?”

“Meetings are boring, I usually try to go to as little as possible, and have someone send me notes on anything major. Sit, eat, it looks like you two have been training. You’ll need some more energy after burning all that you have.”

We do. Dick grabs eggs, while I grab fruits. We make small talk while eating. Tim stays silent, still waking up.

“Dick, zeta squad is scheduled to be arriving back on world today. Will you be there for the debrief?” Bruce asks innocently. He’s testing him.

“Of course. I’m the leader of this team and I need to know what we’re dealing with.” He responds confidently.

“Good… What about you, Charlie? Will you be joining Dick?”

“Umm,” I surprised by the question. “If he thinks I should.” I turn to face him.

“Are we absolutely certain that you know what’s going to happen?” he seems unsure.

“Mostly. I’ve known everything that has happened in the past, why wouldn’t it be the same as what I know for the future?”

“I’d rather not be questioning it. I need you to know for certain. Is this a part of your show?”

“Yes. You will be learning about more than the Kroloteans today. This conversation is going to be important.”

“Then you’re coming with. If it sounds familiar to what they said in your world, then we will know.” He states. No arguments can be made. Anything I say has to either agree, or he will shut it down.

“Alright. I’ll go.” I tell him.

“Good. Now, it’s time for school, grab a lunch and go.” Bruce commands.

So, after school, Dick, and I walk down to the Bat Cave, and toward the Zeta tubes, or at least, what I assume are the Zeta tubes. Dick types in an access code to make sure that I can go through.

When we get there, we are the last ones to arrive. Captain Atom, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern are already here and are speaking with one of the scientists.

This scientist tells them that he is getting signals from Raan and that they should be here any second.

The zeta tubes fire up, and announce “ _Adam Strange, A11_. _Mrs. Martian, B05. Superboy, B04. Beast Boy, B19.”_

“Nightwing! Check out this super cool alien souvenir I got!” Gar runs up to Dick, positively grinning. I have no idea how he does this job, and still keeps the innocence of childhood.

“Gar, business first.” Mrs. Martian scolds.

“Noted.” Garfield slinks back behind the green girl.

“Zeta squad, report.” Dick- no Nightwing- demands.

“Our mission to neutralize the Krolotean zeta platforms on Raan was a success.” Mrs. Martian announces. It sounds all too familiar. These are the exact words she used in the show.

“And I have brought back specs from Raan to create a zeta shield to prevent any more aliens from beaming to Earth from off world.” Adam Strange adds.

“How will that affect our own zeta capabilities?” Captain Atom questions.

“It won’t. The shield will activate at an altitude above the watchtower’s orbit. League zeta tubes will still function normally.” Adam reassures.

“Tell them about Rimbor! Tell them about the missing sixteen hours!” Gar reminds M’gann. Yep. Exactly how the conversation is supposed to go.

“It may be easier to show you.” M’gann starts. She puts her hand on her temple, and immediately, I am looking at what I can only assume are memories. “I successfully interrogated a Krolotean general on Raan, who had paid off a member of the Raanian science command, to allow the Kroloteans to land a secret base in the Raanian jungle.” Different pictures depicting what she is describing are appearing in our minds, where she is talking to us. “Once there, the Kroloteans stole zeta platform technology from Adam Strange’s friend, Sardath. They landed another ship in New Orleans and used the zeta platforms to beam a few hundred Kroloteans to Earth. They built more platforms, brought in more Kroloteans, and began abducting and replacing humans.” She finishes with the memories, and lets our minds go again. Out loud, she says, “Perhaps as part of an invasion strategy. Though, that’s still unclear.”

“But why Earth?” Captain Atom demands.

“And what does any of this have to do with the missing sixteen hours?” Wonder Woman implores.

“Well, as you know,” Mrs. Martian reaches for her head again to show us more memories and images. “Five years ago, Vandal savage placed the entire league under his control. Six leaguers, superman, batman, wonder woman, Martian Manhunter, green lantern, and hawk woman, went missing for a full sixteen hours. It turns out, you were teleported to a planet called Rimbor, where you spent sixteen hours on a rampage, attacking everyone and everything in sight, and announcing in several alien languages that you were the justice league from Earth, and that the rest of the galaxy should beware.” The images this time were definitely more terrifying. I didn’t want to see my favourite heroes doing something so horrible in a cartoon, and now, this is real life. If that’s what the world’s greatest heroes are doing, what chance do I have? “That’s why the Kroloteans came, the league itself brought Earth to their attention.”

“I don’t know what to say, I have no memories of this. None.” Diana concedes.

“Don’t blame yourself. Blame savage, and his light.” Captain Atom Comforts. “But John, how is it that you haven’t heard about this intergalactic incident?”

“No clue.” Green lantern grumbles. “Rimbor’s not a planet in my sector. But I’ll head to Oa immediately to consult the Guardians of the universe and the rest of the green lantern corps. We’ll get to the bottom of this Cap’. I promise.”

“In the meantime, we still have a Krolotean invasion force to track down on earth.” Atom turns back to M’gann. “You did good work on Raan. Now we need you, at the hall of justice.”

“First, I think introductions are in order. Why does the new girl get to be in on the big debrief?” Mrs. Martian gestures to me, but looks at Dick.

I answer for him. “This new girl knew everything that you just said before you did.” Everyone in the room turns to look at me, except for Dick, and Diana. “I come from a place where none of you exist outside of comics and T.V. shows.”

“That is so cool!” Beast Boy exclaims. “So you know what’s going to happen? You know everything? Do the Kroloteans leave? Do we win? Do-’’

“I’m not answering any of those questions.” I interrupt him. He pouts. “If I did, that would screw with the time line, and no one would have any idea what will happen. I’m here to help, but I can’t share what I know.”

“If you won’t share with us, how do we know you’re telling the truth?” Superboy asks.

“I don’t know, Connor. I guess it’s the same way that you had to trust Nightwing before he shared his secret identity with you.” Everyone still looks surprised. “I can let Mrs. Martian look into my mind and find the memories of certain things, like what I know about the failsafe training exercise, or maybe Cadmus, what about what happened with the reds? Maybe that will get her to believe me.”

And now it’s Dick’s turn to be surprised. “Are you sure, I mean, you said that we shouldn’t it can mess with the future.” He cautions.

“I’m going to be messing with the future anyway. I told you, I don’t like the outcome of this specific timeline. I will do whatever it takes to not let that happen.” I vow.

“Fine let’s go. Atom,” Dick calls. “We’ll have Mrs. Martian meet you at the hall in a few hours. She will need some rest.” Captain Atom nods, and turns away, along with the rest of the leaguers present. They walk over to the zeta tubes, and head to the watchtower.

“Zeta squad, good work. “ Nightwing congratulates. “Head back to the cave, and rest. M’gann, when you’re ready, go to the hall.”

They all walk over to the Zeta tube and leave.

Dick turns to me. “Charlie tell me, was it the same? Do you know what we’re dealing with?”

“Yeah. It was exactly the same as I remember. I know what you’re dealing with. This is going to be bad.”

Nightwing nods and walks over to the zeta tubes. “Well, let’s head back home. We should continue what we were doing before breakfast.”

“Sure.” I tell him. I walk over and he types in that same code as before, and then we walk through the alien tech and into the Bat Cave.


	11. Chapter 11

Hours later, Batman arrives through the Zeta tubes. Bruce pulls off the cowl, and calls Dick and me over.

“Mrs. Martian just went through the memories of the Krolotean we captured, and she knows why we can’t find any of them. They have an emergency rendezvous point in a volcano on some island.” Bruce informs us.

“Malina Island.” Bruce nods. He doesn’t even seem phased anymore. “Plan your attack wisely. This is not only for the team, nor is it specifically for the league. This is a chance for you to work together.”

“I was actually thinking about that. We will need some more hands, and most of the league is busy.” Bruce contemplates.

“This will be the first time that most of the team will work on a joint mission between the two. They may not be on their best game, what with working with their idols.” Dick warns.

“They’ll do fine.” I reassure him.

“Are you sure?”

“There are very few chances that they will get the chance to ogle the older heroes. It’s more the league that you should be worried about. Are they ready to learn just how strong their proteges have become?” I smirk.

“Fine. I trust you that my team will be fine, but the league isn’t so easily distracted. I doubt that they will be as distracted as you claim.” Dick argues.

“They don’t get distracted enough that someone gets hurt, no. It’s just a few comments and proud looks, that’s all.”

“Well, since you seem to know so much about how this goes down, I want you with us when we do plan.” I open my mouth to protest. Bruce holds up a hand. “I know that you can’t outright tell us how we should go about doing this, but if we’re planning to go about this the wrong way, we need to know, just direct us if we need it.”

“Fine.”

“Good, we’re leaving for the hall in ten. Dick, suit up.” And Bruce turns away, stalking toward the Bat Computer.

I wait for five minutes, and then Dick and Bruce are both ready, so we leave.

We take the zeta tubes, and once we arrive, I see league and team combined, and mingling, waiting for us. Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Robin, Batgirl, Mrs. Martian, and Superboy.

As soon as Batman enters, the room goes silent. He walks through the heroes gathered, and opens a 3D hologram of Malina Island. They begin.

I listen in as much as I care to. It is exactly the same as what I remember from the show. All except for one detail.

Batman wants the two Martians to camouflage themselves from sight, not just shape shift into Kroloteans themselves. I don’t want to bring this to everyone’s attention, I don’t want anyone to know what the plan should be. I just sit there silently until the meeting is over.

Once it is, I put a crowd of heroes between myself and Dick.

 _“M’gann? I know that you can hear me, you too, J’onn. And I know that Camouflage isn’t complete invisibility. Why don’t you try shapeshifting? Change into Kroloteans, and that might work better.”_ I think toward both of them.

I know that they can hear me, because as soon as I mention not doing what Batman told them to, both of their heads snap up from whatever they were doing, and look at me.

 _“How would that work better? Why should we trust you?”_ M’gann asks.

 _“It’ll work because if you were seen in camouflage mode, it would defeat the purpose of recon. The entire base would know that you were there, and it would just mess up the whole plan. U should trust me because Nightwing, Batman, and Robin all do. I was told by Batman himself that if I didn’t think that you guys should do something, I was allowed to change it, because I know what’s going to happen. I know how things should be done._ ” From where I’m standing, I can see them both nod.

 _“We will try.”_ J’onn assures me. That is all I needed to change, so I walk over to Nightwing, and nod. He knows that I’ve done all I can.

We make our way towards the Zeta tubes. No one else had moved to leave, yet, so we are the first. We go to the cave.

“We go tomorrow, right? You’ll be fine here until we’re done?” Dick worries.

“Of course I’ll be fine. Just let me know when I you’re done. You won’t be coming back to the cave for a while and I want to be there once you mission is done.” I urge. He looks confused, but doesn’t voice his questions.

“Use one of the coms. I’ll contact you with it once we’re done on the island.” He proposes.

“That’ll work. What about classes? School? Are you just going to call in sick?” he smirks.

“I have a problem with my immune system, it comes from growing up on a train and getting sick a lot, without proper ways to take care of it. It’s no big deal, the school knows.” I grin back at him.

“Well then, if you’re sick, I shouldn’t be here. I should be as far away from you as I can be.” And I run. I run as fast as I can towards the stairs. He laughs, and follows.

“You can’t run from me, I’ll always catch you.” He vows. We’re running through the Bat Cave, and I’m almost at the stairs when he grabs my arm. “See. I caught you.”

“No you didn’t.” I laugh. I tear my arm away, and give him a push. He stumbles back some, but it’s not too bad. I just had to throw him off balance.

I sprint up the stairs and into the manor. Moving as quickly as I can, I rush up the stairs, with Dick on my heels. I have no idea where I’m going, but I end up in my room.

Dick and I are on opposite sides of the bed, trying to figure out what the other will do. It’s a standoff.

“I’ve caught you.” Dick pants.

“You know, for someone who spends his nights running over rooftops, one would think you’d be in better shape.” I laugh, and fake left, and Dick falls for it. Climbing over the bed, I’m almost over when he gets up.

I go to leap off the bed, but he grabs me and holds me down. He has my hands pinned, and is keeping my legs still. He’s leaning over me.

We’re both grinning and panting. It was quite the rush, being chased, I must say.

As I get closer to catching my breath, I realize the position we’re in, and I think Dick realizes it as well, because both of our smiles melt away into something more serious.

Slowly, unsurely, Dick leans forward and brushes his lips against mine. Nothing more, just a light touch.

Our eyes lock. He pushes forward again and I meet him half way. It’s an amazing feeling, kissing him. He tastes like vanilla mint. I love it.

His lips are gentle. He seems like he’s been thinking about his for a while. I haven’t but I think I would like to start.

We soon pull away from each other for breath. He’s still leaning over me, holding both my hands, and keeping my legs trapped, but he doesn’t need to. I wouldn’t run away from him now.

“What are we doing?” I pant. I’m still out of breath.

“What do you mean?” Dick is suddenly defensive. He thinks that I didn’t want that.

“I mean, I want to know what we’re doing before we jump in head first. I’m not saying no, I’m saying I want to know whether this is a onetime thing, or am I going to get more of this?”

“You’ll get as much of this as you want.” He replies. I smile, and he kisses me again. I pull away.

“Good.” And I kiss him. This time, it’s a little more than just a light pressing of our lips together. It’s still gentle and tentative, but it has a little more meaning. I smile into the kiss.

There’s a knock on the door, since when was that closed.

“Dick, Charlie? Tim told me that you were in here.” Bruce calls. Now I understand. Tim has our backs. He must have been the one to close the door.

I push Dick off of me, and get up myself. I take a quick look at the mirror on the wardrobe, I still look perfectly normal. After I give Dick a quick once over, I open the door.

“Hey, Bruce, what’s up?” I smile as innocently as possible.

“I just wanted to make sure that everything is going to go according to plan. The mission will be as successful as the one that you remember, right?” Bruce seems suspicious.

“Yeah. I made sure that anything that wouldn’t have been the same now is. You don’t have to worry about that.” I reassure him.

“Good. Now, why don’t you two join Tim and me? We’re watching a movie downstairs.” Bruce offers.

Dick walks up behind me, and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Sure. Let’s go.” He decides. Bruce gestures for us to go first, and we do. I try not to stay too close to Dick, but I’m not walking at an odd distance from him. Normalcy. That’s what I’m going for.

Once we get downstairs, Tim has claimed one of the chairs, and Bruce takes his, leaving the couch for Dick and I. Tim winks at me, and I sneer at him.

Dick sits down, closer to Bruce, leaving me the spot closest to Tim. Good. I can threaten him without making too much of a scene.

I sit on the opposite end of the couch, leaning up against the arm rest nearest to Tim.

“Hey, Tim.” I grin wolfishly.

“Hey, Charlie. What’s new with you?” he asks innocently. I’m beginning to really find him annoying.

“Oh, nothing.” I smirk. “Nothing at all.”

I turn to the T.V. and the movie starts, it’s some superhero movie, a hero that I don’t recognize. It must be one of the replacement movies for the ones their missing from not having DC Comics.

I’m interested in why they would have these kinds of movies, when they could just watch the news and get the same amount of action.

We sit there watching the movie for about ten minutes before Alfred enters the room with popcorn.

The movie isn’t bad, just kind of the same as some of the ones I’m used to. Hero is created. Villain is created. Hero meets villain. Villain beats hero. Hero stops believing in themselves. Villain almost wins. Hero get inspiring speech from love interest. Hero defeats villain. Hero kisses the girl. The most basic of plot lines.

Once the movie is finished, Bruce tells Tim, Dick and I to go to bed, they have a mission that they need to be at their best for, and I have school.

On our way up the stairs, I let Dick go ahead and I pull Tim to a stop.

“If you ever try and pull something like that again, I will castrate you with a pair of needle nose pliers.” I threaten.

“Try something like what?” He grins.

“You know what. You also know that no one in this house is stupid. Bruce is going to know something is up, before we’re ready, and I’m not ready for that.”

“Fine. I won’t. Just know, he will find out sooner or later. It’s better if you tell him yourselves than if he finds out on his own.” And Tim strides away.

I make my way up the stairs. I quickly get ready for bed, and turn off the lights.

I don’t want to sleep tonight, if I do, I might wake up the entire manor with my nightmares again. I don’t want them off their game tomorrow. I force myself to stay up as long as I can.

After hours of lying there, doing nothing, I must have fallen asleep. I don’t remember what it was that I was dreaming about, but the next thing that I know, Dick is waking me, and my throat is sore.

“Charlie! Wake up.” He pleads.

I blink a few times, then I sit up.

“Hey, you with me?” He implores.

“Yeah, I am. How bad was it?” I croak. My voice is all scratchy, probably from screaming.

“Screaming, crying. What was it this time?”

“I have no idea. I don’t remember. But, whatever it was, it was bad.” I turn away from him.

I’m not watching, but I feel the bed moving as he shifts, and pulls the covers over himself. I turn back to ask him what he’s doing, but he grabs me and pulls me into him. Pressing his lips into my hair, he whispers, “It doesn’t matter what it was, just as long as you know that when I’m here, nothing will happen to you.” I smile a little. “Now, try and get some sleep.”

“I don’t think I can.” I murmur.

“Try. I’ll be right here.” And I do.


	12. Chapter 12

When I wake up, Dick is still there. I move as slowly and quietly as I can, and get myself ready for school. I grab my shower things, and head to the bathroom. I wash up, and then brush my teeth.

I get dressed into a pair of dark blue jeans, a dark grey shirt, a purplish brown sweater, and a grey and black beanie. With a pair of black converse, I am done.

I take all of my things back to my room, and Dick is still asleep. I put all of them on my dresser, and grab my laptop bag.

Going downstairs, I grab a lunch, and head out into the garage, foregoing breakfast. I make my way to my dad’s old truck, and go to school.

“Hey’, Charlie, what’s up?” El asks, striding up behind me.

I can’t really tell her that I’m worried I told the team and the league to do the wrong thing because of my memory messing it up. I’m actually stressed for them. All I say, though, is, “Nothing. What about you? You got any new problems that you want to complain about today?”

“Oh, definitely.” And she starts to drone on about her classmates. I stop listening after a while, and try to remember about Malina Island. I don’t remember anything different than earlier, but that doesn’t make me worry any less.

We keep walking into the school. I wish I had anything other than class today, I’m going to be so concentrated on worrying, that I won’t be able to work properly. I’m so happy I don’t have any tests today.

I spend the entire day not paying attention to anything that any of my teachers are talking about. At lunch, Tris tells me what we have for homework in math, and then El does the same for Chem. They know that I’m not going to be paying attention at all today.

I remind myself during French to copy down the homework, and spend the rest of class not paying attention. I’m thinking about what might go wrong, how someone might get hurt. Anything that would make this timeline not in my understanding. It worries me.

During art, I take out my sketch book, and start a free draw. Ms. Loera gives us an assignment but she really doesn’t expect us to do it during class. As long as we get it done before it’s due, she doesn’t care what we do in class.

Usually when I’m doing a free draw, I don’t think about anything. I just put the pencil to the paper and let my mind go blank. I spend the entire class like this, until the bell rings for the end of the day.

I grab my things, and make my way to my truck. I don’t want to go back to the manor just yet, so I don’t. I go to my old neighborhood, and sit at the park. I’ve got a forest behind me, and a playground in front of me. There aren’t any children there, though. Not yet. They won’t get home for a while longer, so none will be at the park.

I sit and think in the silence, until I hear a beeping sound coming from my bag. I look through it, and find the com that I took with me this morning. Dick must be trying to contact me. It must be over.

I put the com into my ear anyway, just to make sure I’m right. “Yeah?” I ask. I’m almost certain that no one other than Dick, Bruce, or Tim will have access to this com frequency, so I have no problem speaking freely over it.

 _“Charlie? You there?”_ Dick’s voice is all staticky over the line, something must be wrong with one of the coms.

“Yeah, I’m here. Is it over?” I’m hopeful that it is.

 _“Yeah, head to the cave, I’ll enter the code for you to use the Zeta tubes to come to Mount Justice. I’ll be waiting here.”_ he answers.

“I might be a while. I’m not at the manor right now, but I’m on my way.” I tell him.

 _“Okay, see you in a while.”_ And I get up and head to my truck.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SOOOOO SORRY!!!!!!!!
> 
> I haven't posted in a month, and I'm sorry. 
> 
> I won't give you any excuses because I, personally, don't believe in excuses. I just hope that I have some readers left who don't think I have abandoned them.

_“Recognize, authorized guest.”_ My arrival is announced by the computer as I step through the alien tech.

The first thing I see when I enter, is Dick, or, well, Nightwing. He’s standing there waiting for me, just like he said he would.

“Hey, how’d it go?” I ask worriedly.

“Almost perfectly. There was a minor surprise towards the end of the mission, but we could handle it, just like you said.” Dick smiles. “You were right.” He puts an arm around my shoulders, and gives me a side hug.

“Good. Have you heard from John, yet?”

“No, he should be on his way back from Oa, though. Why?”

“Can’t say.” And we leave it at that.

Together we walk farther into the cave.

“The only one who got hurt was Superman.” Dick begins. “He-“

“Tried to save the Kroloteans from the bomb.” I interrupt. “You don’t need to explain this to me, I know.”

“Yeah, well, I do my best thinking when I’m thinking out loud. Just be a soundboard for me, ‘kay?” he asks.

“Fine.” I concede.

“Right, well, he tried to save the Kroloteans from an alien bomb that they seemed to have no idea was there. It couldn’t have been us, because none of us would endanger that many lives just to who planted it? And why was Kaldur there? Was he supposed to be helping them, if so, why would he leave them to die?” he ponders this while we walk into the kitchen of the cave.

Everyone who went on the mission, minus Superman, is currently sitting in the living area. Mrs. Martian is in the kitchen cooking, while basically everyone else is just relaxing after the mission. The only one missing would be Batman. He’s probably on some computer somewhere, trying to get something done.

“Nightwing, can you finally introduce us to your friend, I think we all want to know who she is why she is so involved in league business.” Superboy demands.

Nightwing looks at me and silently asks for permission to tell them.

“Go ahead, I don’t care. They’ll find out sooner or later.” I say offhandedly.

“Alright,” and he turns back to the rest of the room, who had been watching the interaction. “Everyone this is Charlie Myers. She… isn’t from around here.” He tells them vaguely.

“What does that mean?” La’gaan asks.

“It means,” I break in. “that I know everything that’s going to happen to you all. The good and the bad. Where I’m from, you’re nothing more than characters in books and movies and animated T.V. shows.” Everyone looks confused.

“How is this possible?” Aquaman questions.

“We don’t know yet, but when we do, you will also.” Batman strides into the room.

“And when will that be? I don’t know if I can trust what she’s saying, until I know everything I can.” Barbara insists. Batman looks at his female protégé without emotion.

“I don’t know, but for now, you will trust her.” The dark knight states with a calm voice.

“And why is that?” La’gaan snaps.

“Because, I trust her. I do, and so does the leader of your team, meaning that no matter what you think of her, she’s here to help, and it’s our responsibility if she messes up. Just like it’s your responsibility if you mess up. Got it?” everyone nods. “Good. Discussion over.” And just like that, no one has any problems with me, at least not any that they want to verbalize.

“So,” Nightwing breaks the silence, “Anything on our mysterious bomb, Batman?” he’s trying to take the attention away from me, and I’m thankful for it.

“Nothing. The Kroloteans didn’t have any idea that it was there, obviously, but Black Manta’s men did. They knew, and they were fleeing before we even knew about it. We need to know where they got that tech from.” Everyone nods. No one disagrees with the Batman. “I’m going to go check my files, Nightwing, Charlie, Robin, are you coming, or are you staying?”

“I’m staying.” Robin says immediately.

“I’d like to go.” I tell him after a moment.

“Then I’m going as well.” Nightwing says. Batman nods and leaves the room, on his way to the zeta tubes. Dick turns to everyone else. “Good job, team,” he tells the younger half of the room. “You fought well, today. Go rest. I’m sure you will be needed again soon.”

We walk away from them, and to the zeta tubes. On our way home.


	14. Chapter 14

“Charlie! Wake up, Charlie! C’mon, you’re scaring me, babe.” I can hear Dick pleading with me through the angry screams of my brother and sister. I don’t know where he is, but I don’t want him here. He shouldn’t see this.

“Charlie, please! Come back to me.” His voice is getting louder, he must be getting closer. He should be able to see what’s going on. I don’t want him to see this. I need to break free.

I push against them, but they push back. I push harder and harder until I’m free. I can finally breathe without the suffocating stench of death.

I gasp and my eyes fly open. I can’t breathe. I don’t know where I am.

Oh, wait.

I’m in bed, in the Wayne Manor. My siblings aren’t here, but Dick is. He looks extremely worried.

“Charlie, you with me?” he murmurs worriedly.

“Give me a sec.” I croak. My throat is sore. I must have been screaming. I take a few minutes to calm my breathing. I won’t even look at him.

When I finally do look up, he’s still staring right at me.

“D’you want to talk about it?” he whispers.

I’m not sure if I do.  I want him to know that I would probably still be caught in the nightmare’s clutches without him, but I don’t want to talk about it at all.

I shrug.

“Okay, is that a yes, or a no?”

I shrug.

“Alright, I’ll take that as a no. C’mere.” He opens his arms. I slide over to him, and he pulls me to his side.

We sit there for a while, neither of us talking, Dick just sitting there holding me and trying to comfort me. So far it’s working. I think I might tell him about my dream.

“It was my brother and sister.” I mumble. Dick looks at me, surprised.

“What?”

“It was my brother and sister.” I say a little louder. “They blamed me for what happened to them. For not coming home earlier that night.” His arms tighten around me. “I tried to fight back, but there were two of them and one of me. I couldn’t win. I just let it happen.”

“Charlie… it’s okay. It’s not your fault.” He tries to reassure me. I shake my head.

“I didn’t know how to stop it, I knew it was a dream, but I was trapped. I couldn’t get away… then I heard your voice. You were begging me to wake up, and I thought, ‘I can’t let him see me lose, he sounds close enough to see what’s happening, and if he does see this, then he’ll think I’m weak.’ So I tried to fight back again, and I kept trying until I was free. Your voice is the only thing that got through to me.” I tell him.  

“Charlie,” he whispers. I look at the wall across from me.

“Thank you.” I mumble.

“Charlie,” he says again. I turn to face him, staring right into his eyes. “No matter what, I will never think of you as weak. You are probably the strongest person I know.” and he smiles.

I feel my face getting hot. I know that it’s probably red.

I’m about to say something, but before I can, I yawn. I’m still extremely tired.

“C’mon, let’s go to sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a long enough day without being dead on our feet.” He lies down properly, and pulls me with him. He moves me until he has me exactly where he wants me, tucked at his side, with his arm around my shoulders and my head on his chest. From here, I fall asleep almost immediately.


End file.
